Green Building : Jetson Green

June Monthly of Green Articles

Wow!  The month went by quickly and the prefab world is ablaze, isn't it?  There's a lot of interesting talk, but I think we all know that prefab won't go anywhere until it's like the iPhone: stylish, approachable, and dead simple (which is also why community development is the new 3G S).  Simultaneously, talk of Passive House and tiny living is getting louder and more interesting.  Relatedly, the USGBC wants to close the performance gap with their new iteration and energy reporting requirements, but federal level legislation could shake up the entire playing field.  We're monitoring all of it -- expect some long form opinion editorial soon.  While you're waiting, check out a few articles that you may have missed:

Vodafone Extreme Mobile Solar Home

"La casa movil de Vodafone," or the Vodafone Mobile Home, creatively combines glass house living, tiny house design, loft-like features, sustainable elements, and portable architecture all in one tight package.  Design Boom recently reported that the portable home was designed by Waskman Design Studio, with CuldeSac, for Vodafone to showcase its fixed phone and wireless internet services.  And blogger Marcos Morales and his family of four are vacationing throughout Spain with it as we speak. 

Bike Arc Modular Bike Park System

Commentators take pot shots at the bike storage and showers credit available in the LEED Green Building Rating System, but I've always liked it -- it's hard to ride a bike to work when there's no bike rack.  Certainly bike transportation is good for the environment, and Bike Arc has designed a modular bike park system that I believe will be huge in the next few years.  The company incorporated the system into several designs to suit different needs: the Rac Arc is low profile, the Umbrella Arc saves space (see video below), and the Tube Arc and Half Arc versions protect vehicles from the elements. 

Maison IDEKIT Quebec Container Home

Using seven recycled shipping containers, architect Bernard Morin and wife Joyce Labelle built this contemporary residence in St. Adele, Quebec.  The home is the first of many to come for their new company, Maison Idekit, which will help homeowners turn containers into architecturally unique, and inexpensive, homes.  The company has two more residential projects set to break ground in the next couple months using a total of twelve container modules.

Reclaimed Prefab Auctioned for $75k

After nine bids on eBay, some lucky duck ended up with a reclaimed prefab for $75,100.  The prefab was built by Reclaimed Space for Dwell on Design and the proceeds went to both Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles and Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity.  Ecofabulous created the interior using a number of stylish, green products.  According to the eBay listing, this 400 square foot home included the following:

Unworkable Prefab, Green Demolition, Compost Mandate + Dead Eco-towns

• Prefab houses don't work.
• New lives for old buildings.
• Does green building have to break the bank?
• San Francisco enacts mandatory composting law.
• Six bright ideas for the future of energy.
• Who killed Gordon Brown's eco-towns?
• Innovations in sustainable site technology.
• Mature trees (and wildlife habitat) demolished for 'green' building parking lot.

Follow @jetsongreen on Twitter for more news, links, and commentary.

LionForce ecoLiving Custom Green Home

San Antonio-based LionForce built this efficient home as a prototype for their ecoLiving System -- a web-based configurator that will help homeowners design homes and build them through a national network of certified building partners.  LionForce says their homes are efficient, healthy, low-maintenance, quickly constructed, and cost effective.  This first prototype home, the T-2 home, has already received a 2009 Green Building Award from the City of San Antonio (in the custom home under 2,200 square feet category). 

Top 10 Green Building Products [2009]

As the magazine does every year, Sustainable Industries has just published its list of the Top 10 Green Building Products of 2009.  Selections are chosen based upon environmental performance, scalability / market impact, innovation, design aesthetic, value, and compatibility with LEED.  Download the guide at Sustainability Industries.  Here are the top ten:

Free Microsoft Hohm App Coming Soon!

If you haven't noticed, the big news today is Microsoft Hohm, a free online beta application that's rumored to launch sometime next week.  Microsoft Hohm will be a web-based service that takes information about your energy use -- not just electricity -- and examines it to provide recommendations to save money and energy.  Here's what you can do:

Wind Powered Artistic Light Facade

The Architectural Review recently mentioned an interesting facade installation on an office building in Utrecht, Netherlands.  Designed by Cepezed, in collaboration with Ned Kahn Studios, the facade is made with about 3,250 square feet of stainless steel mesh.  The mesh grid holds transparent plastic disks, or squares rather, that vibrate and move to the wind.  The effect is an artistic facade that produces a mezmorizing array of shade and light, together with exterior wave patterns that captivate.