I just read this article in Natural Home Magazine (dot com) by Rebecca Selove about harvesting rainwater.

I know this has become kinda trendy over the past few years what with everybody suddenly caring about the environment and everything. What I don’t get is why this once-common practice went away for so long. And why (and how!) people became disconnected from the most basic idea of survival: collect and protect the water.

Here’s the article:

Our home is a rainwater harvesting tool. The roof was designed to capture 1200 gallons of water each time it rains an inch. The LEED rating system gives us four points for doing this, which is a pretty big pat on the back for reducing our dependence on the municipal water system. Our county’s building codes do not allow us to use that valuable rainwater for washing clothes or flushing our toilet, which we wanted to do. It will go to good use, nonetheless, for irrigating vegetables and blueberry bushes, and for hydrating a few cows and maybe some sheep.

We don’t yet know where we will store the water. We’d hoped to find a bargain of a water tank a little town had outgrown, maybe a quaint round metal tower surrounded beautiful wood. That hasn’t happened yet, so we are looking at polyurethane, concrete and metal cisterns, either above or below ground.

I believe that rainwater harvesting is good, and I also think that most cisterns are not very attractive. I think that we will use more resources if we dig a hole in the ground big enough to hold a 1700-gallon tank, which is what we have been told is our minimum, rather than plopping a 5 foot high green plastic tub beside our screened porch. As with many aspects of building a sustainable home, our decisions are affected by facts and our feelings.

We have gotten information about local contractors from our friend Gwen Griffith, Program Director of the Cumberland River Compact, and from Ronnie Barron, our local County Extension Agent. He has also provided some useful facts, such as these:

• It takes approximately 27,000 gallons of water to supply 1 inch of irrigation to 1 acre. Most commercial vegetable growers try to supply at least 1 inch per acre per seven to 10 days.

• Growing calves will consume about 5-15 gallons of water per day (depending on their size).

In evaluating our options, we are asking where and how the cistern is made, how durable will it be and what impact installation will have in the short- and long-term. Whether we bury it on a gravel bed or stand it above ground on a concrete pad, we’ll be using heavy equipment and hauling resources from off-site. It seems to me that over and over again we put our values on either side of a giant scale, weigh our options, and hope our final decision satisfies us for a long, long time.

I wonder how the facts will affect my perception of what is attractive.

So I’m cleaning out my backpack for my trip to Washington tomorrow, and I came across this ad I had torn out of a magazine who knows how long ago.

It’s an ad for USAarchitecture.com. They “specialize in connecting buyers and sellers of architecturally unique homes.”

Let’s have a look, shall we?

Oh…actually, there’s nothing on that site that’s really that interesting.

All the houses are in Arizona. Don’t get me wrong. I love Arizona. It’s just that…well, how can you call yourself “USA” architecture if you only represent one state?

Another disappointment: Nothing really looked that “architecturally unique.” Especially since all of these homes have the same look to them. In fact, instead of “architecturally unique,” I would put these houses in the “post-post-modernism” (neo-ugly?) category.

Quelle dommage.

Have you seen this facebook group yet?

You should join.

I just read this article over at Natural Home Magazine (dot com) by Rebecca Selove called “Buying Appliances for a LEED-Certified Home“

The only kitchen appliance we brought from our old home is the microwave oven. We’d hoped to find someone in a department store who was knowledgeable and motivated to put together an energy-efficient appliance package with a price tag we liked. We found that while some salespeople knew where to look for the yellow Energy Guide tags that list the kilowatt hours used by an appliance in a year, most wanted to focus on which was the least expensive or the “most popular” version of something, such as refrigerators with French doors.

We found helpful information on the Internet about the Energy Star rating program the EPA implemented in 1992. The Energy Star program encourages manufacturers to voluntarily create appliances with reduced water and energy use, and now consumers like us can compare appliances on these factors. In addition to energy efficiency, we had to consider the way our architect designed our kitchen, our budget and what was available in local stores. My husband also checked out consumer ratings of appliances, which, combined with Energy Star ratings, helped us generate a list of our top choices.

Through our builders we met Matt at the local Cenwood Appliance store. He was savvy about energy efficiency and taught us more about cooktops than I knew existed. I’ve never lived where a cooktop was separate from the oven. I learned about fixed and telescopic downdrafts and induction cook tops (not worth their cost to us). I also learned that energy efficiency in a cooktop is due in part to a good match in size of the burner and size of the bottom of the pan it heats. I came home and measured the bottoms of my favorite pans and learned that the largest are 9 inches in diameter. This meant we didn’t want a cook top with a 12-inch burner.

We left our first meeting with Matt feeling pretty good about our decisions, but with a question still on the table about the oven. I had used a convection oven in a cohousing comunity where we used to live, and appreciated its ability to help me get dinner ready on time even when I started late. The Energy Star convection oven cost about $200 more than a standard oven, and from the American Council on Energy Efficiency, a nonprofit organization that provides education and advocacy related to energy efficiency, I learned that the convection oven is generally 20 percent more efficient than the conventional oven. We settled on a GE Profile 30-inch downdraft electric cook top and a GE 30-inch single oven with convection.

You really want some energy efficient appliances?

How about this yogurt maker?

Or this off-the-grid freezer?

Or this grain grinder?

This is the ressult of a kitchen makeover, and Natural Home Magazine wants to know what YOU want madeover in your house!

Do you have a trouble spot in your home that could use a makeover? We can help! Beginning with our next issue, Natural Home will feature a new “Quick Fix” department, offering green design advice for your home’s problem spots. With a little help from our feng shui expert, you can turn that ugly corner into a space you’ll never want to leave.

To submit your space to Quick Fix, e-mail jkellner [at] ogdenpubs [dot] com

I started thinking, what renovations would I want in our place? Hmmm…

• More closet space with natural lighting
• A large operable window in the bathroom so that we can have natural light and ventialtion instead of a nasty little “vent”
• Tiny little white hexagon tiles in the bathroom
• Large Mexican tiles in the kitchen
• Wide plank hardwood floors in the living room
• Tons of skylights

Also I’d like to renovate the exterior. The exterior being smog-choked traffic-congested Los Angeles. But maybe that’s too big of a job for Natural Home?

Oh my goodness. Look at this house by Piet Hein Eek.

It’s a log house on wheels as study for music-entertainer Hans Liberg in The Netherlands. How jealous are you right now?

See more photos! You’ll be glad you did.

The editor over at Natural Home Magazine, Robyn Griggs Lawrence, has some green building predictions for 2010.

Here’s her Top Three:

Green Building Trend 1: Modular will be the new straw bale.
At the turn of the century, straw bale was a popular dream-house material. (People purchased a lot of books and magazines about straw bale homes and built a decent number of straw bale homes.) Now, prefab homes are the rage—and unlike straw bale, they’re pretty easy to build. Prefab home manufacturers have popped up across the country, and they’re building affordable, stylish, environmentally friendly homes. Clayton Homes’ iHouse, backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffet, provides 723 hip-looking square feet, complete with solar panels, tankless water heaters and bamboo floors. Start dreaming.

Um. Maybe. Probably. But you know what would be totally awesome? If new straw bale construction could be the new straw bale. I mean, have you ever experienced how…good it feels inside of a straw bale home versus how…eh *shrug* it feels inside of even a top-of-the-line modular home. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no comparison.

Green Building Trend 2: Green remodeling will hang tough in a tough economy.
This year homeowners will capitalize on 2009’s buzz about energy efficiency. Green remodels will be good business in 2010 as the Obama Administration continues to promote energy efficiency and clean energy. Now, more than ever, it pays for taxpayers to improve their homes’ energy efficiency. Market research firm SBI predicts the U.S. home energy renovation market will grow about 15 percent per year until it reaches $35 billion in 2013. Energy-efficient remodeling and renovating is a bright spot in the still-struggling construction business, SBI says.

I hope so. But I wonder what, if any, government incentive programs will be put into place so that the huddled masses yearning to breathe free can get some love.

Green Building Trend 3: We’ll see a lot more “green” building products, and we’ll need to ask more questions.
NextGen Research predicts that the global market for green building materials will grow 5 percent per year until it reaches $571 billion in 2013. That growth will trigger innovations in green building technology—and some who just want to get in on the gold rush. On the upside, green products will look and perform better, and designers’ creativity won’t be limited by finite resources. But buyer beware: It pays to investigate a company’s green claims before investing. Third-party certification will also take on more importance in the coming year.

Dude, I totally agree here. When I went to GreenBuild 2008 in Boston, I saw so much greenwashing it’d make your head spin. I was like, “All you did was add the word “green” to your off-gassing petroleum product! Bastards!”

Want more predictions? You know you do.

Source

I really like the way the house used to look:

…but I guess the family grew out of it.

In the mid-1990s, Damon and Claudia Smith purchased a two-level, three-bedroom house, built in the 1920s, and restored it to liveable condition to make it their home. Over the next decade, they expanded the family to include three children and two dogs and in 2006, decided it was time for thir house to grow, too.

With the help of Seattle–based firm Shed Architects, the Smiths added a master suite–and got a covered outdoor dining space along with it.

Watch the slideshow.

Source

I made a lot of awesome updates to the Official Architecture Addiction Bookstore.

Check it out!

I want to go on safari here at Zarafa.

Just because I love the building.

My sister asked me to build this for her.

How can I say no?

I just read about this incredible material. You can use it to make a different kind of concrete.

A concrete that is resistant resistant to mold, mildew

A concrete that is resistant to fire and insects

A kind of concrete that absorbs carbon, making it carbon-negative

And it’s made out of hemp. Which is illegal to produce in the US. Which means that it has to be imported. Which means that it costs more than it should.

DUMB!!!!

If I were president, I would make it legal to grow hemp. I would also make marijuana legal. Just as legal as a cigarette. And I would tax it. And, with ALL THE MONEY that that tax would generate, I would repeal the income tax.

You’re welcome.

Okay, here’s the article, so that you can be enlightened and outraged (aren’t they the same thing?) just as I am:

Last April I wrote about innovations in hemp as a building material. At the time of that blog post, researchers were developing ways to use hemp as a building block for zero-carbon homes. Because cultivating hemp is illegal in the U.S., all of that research was conducted overseas.

Hemp production hasn’t been legalized since then, but hemp has moved into the U.S. building industry. Two homes in Asheville, North Carolina, are being built using a hemp material called Tradical Hemcrete. The product, sold by Asheville-based Hemp Technologies, mixes four parts ground-up hemp stalks with one part water and one part lime to create durable, resilient walls that European researchers have found can last up to 700 or 800 years.

In addition to durability, hemp concrete walls provide many benefits. They’re resistant to mold, mildew, fire and insects, and the lime absorbs carbon, making the walls carbon-negative.

Because the materials have to be imported, hemp concrete is more expensive than traditional building materials. Despite this, it’s possible to save money in other aspects of building when using hemp. Hemp construction uses less lumber for framing, and because it’s all-purpose, hemp concrete can be your sheetrock, insulation and moisture barrier all in one. Hemp concrete walls are also energy-efficient, saving homeowners on their energy bills each month.

We think this is a promising material, and we’d like to see more of it. What do you think?

Source

I think hells yeah, that’s what I think!

Ever dream of harvesting grapes in Italy, baking bread in France, or tending sheep in Australia?

An international network called World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) helps travelers arrange free room and board on an organic farm in exchange for five or six hours of (mostly manual) work a day.

The WWOOF program links volunteer workers with farmers in about fifty countries throughout Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Asia. The goal is to promote organic farm subsistence and give workers farm experience while allowing them to visit a foreign country on a budget.

Volunteers might pull brambles, milk cows, build fences, and sow or harvest crops. In return for their toil, they gain insight into rural life and help farmers pursue a sustainable lifestyle.

I just read about Builders Without Builders and it stired both my nomadism and my desire to build something with my hands instead of with AutoCAD. I had to tell you about it.

Builders Without Borders (BWB) is an international network of ecological builders who create affordable housing from local materials. These hands-on humanitarians believe the solution for homelessness lies in training local populations to provide housing for themselves. A nonprofit organization, BWB has accomplished impressive feats since its 1999 inception under the leadership of author and teacher Joseph Kennedy, architect Alfred von Bachmayr, video producer and author Catherine Wanek, and other natural builders.

BWB has undertaken the following projects:

Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico: Partnered with the National Indian Youth Leadership Project to build a straw bale hogan.

Ciudad Juarez, New Mexico: Earth-plaster workshop; volunteers built a straw bale house for a family who lost their home in a fire, using wooden shipping pallets as roof trusses.

El Paso, Texas: Straw bale wall-raising at the Tierra Madre development.

Northern China: Donated teaching materials to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency for a straw bale housing project.

Ethiopia: Donated teaching materials to Voluntary Services Overseas for a straw research project.

Future projects:

Afghanistan: Train Afghanis in natural building techniques.

Gallup, New Mexico: Develop a coalition of housing organizations to address Navajo reservation housing shortages.

Wadi Na’am, Israel: Provide technical support for the construction of a straw bale medical clinic to serve Israel’s Bedouin population.

Learn more…Get Involved

Check out the big boxy piece of furniture that takes up most of these kids’ room:

It looks like it’s just about the coolest thing ever. Take a look at the full slideshow on dwell.com. Inspect all of the little nooks and crannies that Eva and Jean can use to play Pirate Ship, or Airplane, or Castle, or Fort, or Cave…

This reminds me of a fantasy I like to entertain. I want to build a place like Chuck E Cheese. But for adults. And minus the automatron rodent.

I just saw this sexy bathroom on dwell.com. I love how the bathtub faucet is in the shelf.

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When Pamela Butz and Jeffrey Klug, principals of Butz + Klug Architecture, began renovating the master bathroom of a nearly 120-year-old home in Brookline, Massachusetts, they made “all sorts of horrible discoveries,” Klug recalls. The floors were completely rotted, the structural elements had been compromised by previous plumbing jobs, and prior remodels had left the room in pieces. The toilet, sink, and shower were in one room, the tub was in another, and the two spaces, which also served as the guest bathroom, created traffic between the living room and master bedroom.

And then look at the other side where the sink and toilet are:

It’s all so peaceful and streamlined…

I just came across this home modification – It’s the winner of the refurbishment competition “Don’t Move, Improve” on Mapledene Road in Hackney, London by Platform 5.

London-based architects Platform 5 have been awarded the first prize in the refurbishment competition “Don’t Move, Improve” for their extension to a Victorian terraced house in Hackney, London.

The competition, held by New London Architecture (NLA), was open to architects and homeowners who had completed extensions in Britain’s capital in the past five years. The NLA galleries are having all 32 shortlisted and winning designs on display until the end of January.

Here is how Platform 5 describe their scheme:

Mapledene Road is situated in a conservation area in Hackney. The property had been stripped of virtually all its period features and had become run down and used as a “crack den” leaving it ripe for modernization.

Refurbishment was conceived of as a landscape of interventions and new components. The cellular ground floor was opened up and extended to the rear to allow the spaces to flow into each other and to the garden whilst the existing layout to the first floor was largely retained. Each room maintains an individual character giving a varied experience as you move through the house.

The kitchen and patio areas are unified by a power-floated concrete floor and London stock brick garden wall giving the internal space an external character. The existing flank wall has been removed and the kitchen is applied as a lining to the rough brickwork. A modern structural glass oriel window lined with cherry wood projects into the garden and juxtaposes with the Victorian bay that projects into the street. The expansive glass roof over the kitchen opens up the view to the sky, you can watch the planes fly over and the swifts catching flies.

Daylight is brought in from above to illuminate previously dark spaces, the walls, floors, roof, glazing and appliances have been upgraded to modern standards for insulation and efficiency. Overheating and glare in the kitchen is managed by shading from the surrounding buildings and trees, high thermal mass and the use of solar-control glass and blinds.

Mapledene Road has also been shortlisted for an RIBA Award, Grand Designs Award and Architect’s Journal Small Projects Award 2009.

Source. And more photos.