The tragic earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, has left much of the city in ruins, killed more than 75, and left hundreds missing. Even as survivors continue to be dragged out of the rubble, and survivors reel in their shock, it’s worth looking forward to how the city might be rebuilt to better deal with disasters like this in the future. Building for disaster resistance might be expensive today, but in the long run it is the very height of environmental and fiscal responsibility, as it prevents the great waste and expense of having to rebuild later.
Tag Archives: green construction
14
Feb
Feb
The Oliver neighborhood in East Baltimore is full of vacant houses and run down buildings. That is why One Green Home at a Time Foundation stepped in to rehab the houses with a green touch. The nonprofit organization was started only 15 months ago, funded by Bridge Private Lending. Their aim is to purchase and…
02
Feb
Feb
The tire wall construction has progressed from earthship and tire-bales are now being used.
27
Jan
Jan
Ever wondered what it felt like to live in a truly sustainable community? Wonder no more, because Dancing Rabbit, an Ecovillage based in northeastern Missiouri can be a life changing experience for anyone who’s willing to learn, live and work under their Eco-minded philosophy.
27
Jan
Jan
As we take on the project of green building from the ground up, we focused on consideration of space in week 1 and the use of Bioclimatic design on week two. This week, we take a closer look at some of the myths green building and renovation. We debunk false ideas and take a detailed look at what it really means to build sustainably after defogging the cloak of smoke and mirror behind green building myths.
14
Jan
Jan
Several projects were honored at Greenbuild in November, including a LEED Platinum house built for under $100 per square foot, an affordable housing project named after General Colin Powell, and the most prolific LEED for Homes provider in the nation.
03
Sep
Sep
Cement is a strong and reliable building material, and the demand for it continues to go up. Unfortunately, the process used to manufacture most of the world’s cement creates 5 percent of the man-made carbon dioxide emissions. A new cement company, however, promises a new technique that will transform cement into a greener building…
13
Aug
Aug
The Grand Bay Coastal Resources Center is the first state government-owned LEED certified building in Mississippi. The Center is built on land that was underwater during Katrina, and has special landscaping to protect it from forst fires.
19
Nov
Nov
Earthen plasters provide a beautiful, soft, and an organic finishing touch to your home, whether they be a straw bale house, cob building, wood cabin, or even plain old sheetrock walls. A simple natural plaster can be mixed from ingredients straight from the earth, including sand, clay, and fibers such as straw, cattail fluff, or…
06
Nov
Nov
When mention of an “earthen floor” is made, one might imagine a dusty, drab dirt floor. Earthen floors are far from this, however; instead they are very elegant, durable, inexpensive, and ecologically sustainable solutions to a typical floor installation. They are varied in construction, but the idea and ingredients are essentially the same across the…
22
Apr
Apr
At the heart of all building projects are the materials, the stuff, the bricks and sticks, the elements that are assembled to build a building. Different materials have different impacts on the Earth. Some require extensive resources for their manufacture. Steel and other metals need to be refined from ore and processed into their final…
17
Apr
Apr
On Tuesday, April 22, the Sundance Channel will present as part of their The Green series “The Greening of Southie,” a documentary on the construction of Boston’s first green residential building, the Macallan, which is seeking a LEED gold rating. If the idea of watching a documentary on the construction of a condo building doesn’t…
10
Apr
Apr
Under the FAQs for LEED for Homes is a question on whether the US Green Building Council has a LEED program for remodeling. The response is that they are “in active consideration.” It seems they’ve done more than just consider. Last month at the Interiors 08 conference in New Orleans, the American Society of Interior…
Photo Credit: Living Homes (via Inhabitat) Bob Ellenberg wrote a good, thought-provoking (and discussion-starting) article at Inhabitat titled 'Prefab Construction: Green or Greenwashing?' and drew comments from Preston Koerner (of Jetson Green) and Lloyd Alter (an architecture writer at Treehugger with whom I had some inter-blog discussion over the past couple of weeks regarding foundations, but more importantly also an entrepreneur in prefab construction with direct experience in the process).
Prefab is a popular concept in green design circles and shows up regularly on a number of blogs. A few of the more prominent examples include: Inhabitat (Pre-Fab Friday); Jetson Green; Treehugger; BldgBlog; MoCo Loco; and even a website devoted to prefabs: FabPrefab. But it's a valid question that is being asked. How "green" is prefab building, and should it be embraced by those who want a greener building? Bob sums his article up this way: "I want to honestly question what is and what isn't 'green' about prefabrication and encourage others to do the same."
Prefab construction can be very green. The LivingHomes prefab illustrating this article is a LEED Platinum building. But, there are very few examples of prefabs that have LEED certificaion. And not every prefab qualifies even as a LEED certified building, let alone a Platinum one.
<p><img src="/files/images/koos1.jpg" border="0" alt="cmhc.ca" width="339" height="243" />Photo Credit: cmhc.ca<br />Adaptive reuse is the use of an existing structure for a new purpose; in short, it is recycling for buildings. Rather than demolishing an old structure to clear a site, the existing structure is rehabilitated and used for a new purpose. </p><p><a href="http://www.chestermangroup.com/koos/index.html">Koo's Corner</a> is a project in Vancouver that took an old automotive repair shop and turned it into six urban loft residences. The existing garage building was turned into two of the lofts, and another four units were built to fit the neighborhood context. Building in an existing neighborhood helps to increase urban density (which makes for more efficient use of existing city services) and makes use of available property rather than buldozing undeveloped land for construction.</p>