This is the new extension portion of a cottage house in Venice, California, which was designed by Canadian architects Bricault Design. The ground level of the extension features large glass doors that swing open to a grassy courtyard, while the exterior cladding is part cedar batten and part greenery comprised of native plants and vegetables. It's a striking combination of natural materials.
In an article that appeared in the August 2009 issue of Buildings, John Kouletsis, executive director at Kaiser Permanente, set forth a list of eight things to do to develop sustainable buildings. These elements can be applied in the context of new construction or substantial renovations, but the key is to start doing something now. Here’s the list (with our own ad lib descriptions):
There's something about the simple design of this small container home that I really like. It was mentioned on A Site-Specific Experiment, which is run by Chutayaves Sinthuphan out of Bangkok, Thailand. The one-bedroom, one bathroom home was built using two, 20-foot containers with cutouts for windows and doors. There's a prefab bathroom inside and the interior is insulated with a recycled content material.
A long time ago, we mentioned the 100k House project developed by Post Green in Philadelphia. The project involves two attached homes designed by Interface Studio Architects, and one was a case study of sorts to try to build it for only $100,000. What I liked about the project was its attempt to marry three essential elements: style, sustainability, and affordability. All too often, these three are hard to put together in the same package. But the media wave followed, and Post Green seems to have delivered what it set out to do.
The Southface Eco Office is a state of the art building designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent. The Atlanta building has 10,000 square feet of space spread throughout three levels, as well as an upper-level green roof space. The building is the same size as roughly three-quarters of the commercial buildings in the country, yet it's different in a number of ways. Not only is it LEED Platinum certified, the highest level achievable, but The Eco Office was designed to use 53% less energy and 84% less water.
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