Dwell and Google Sketchup came together to hold a Design Your Dwelling contest and the grand prize winner has been chosen. Drew Wilgus, resident of North Carolina and intern at The Roberts Group + Fanning Howey, took top honors for his green home concept. According to Christopher Bright on the Dwell Blog, the Wilgus design "stood out for its sustainable elements, integration into the local landscape, keen material use, and striking aesthetic."
Tryon Farm is an architecturally diverse conservation community located about an hour outside of Chicago. Three quarters of the community’s 170 acres remain undeveloped. The landscape is comprised of woods, restored meadows, and wetlands. The homes range in style from contemporary to modern to traditional and somehow the varied designs blend seamlessly in this beautiful, natural setting.
As with all terms environmental, the devil is in the definition and the lawyers have been hard at work with so called zero energy buildings. A net ZEB, by definition, produces as much energy as it uses over the course of a year. To get to that point, buildings owners make their buildings as efficient as possible and then use, in the typical case, on-site renewable energy to get into zero energy territory. But there are other variations, including net zero site energy, net zero source energy, net zero energy costs, net zero energy emissions, and near zero energy, all of which have been kindly defined by the DOE. The DOE, as assisted by Building Green, has also launched a Zero Energy Buildings Database, with the following four buildings.
When Maria Surma Manka brought us news of Broadstar Wind Systems last June from Windpower 2008, our interest was stoked, especially considering the fact that Broadstar was claiming that their AeroCam turbine could achieve $1 per watt installed. Well, the company is still beta testing the AeroCam turbine, but demand is crazy and they’re "on track" to install more than 70 turbines. J.C. Penny Co. plans to install AeroCam turbines on their distribution facility in Reno, Nevada by November this year. Plus, 15 companies have contracted to test the turbines and 12 more are in talks.
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