It’s been another month and time is chasing by. Here’s an outline of coverage from August. From newly published pieces this month, I noticed that our articles about colored solar panels and this New Mexico Passive House were shared a fair amount. For a visual look at what’s being shared, also make sure to check out Jetson Green on Pinterest.
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There’s an interesting Kickstarter campaign right now for an innovation called SmartThings. SmartThings is a Minnesota-based company and an open platform to connect everyday things to the internet to monitor, control, and automate. The company wants to add “intelligence to everyday things in your world, so that your life can be more awesome.” It consists of a hub, “things,” maker tools, a cloud platform, and mobile app.
Marken Projects is working on another Passive House in British Columbia. This 3,500-square-foot home, made with a panelized prefab system like the Rainbow Duplex, will house two families and three generations under the same roof in Surrey, British Columbia. The aim is an affordable structure that uses 90% less energy for heating and cooling than a standard home. It’ll have triple-pane windows, an HRV, solar hot water, rainwater harvesting, no-VOC materials, and the ultra-efficient and airtight shell. Construction will take about five months, and I’ll provide an update with more detail at that time.
This is Avant Garage, a four-unit residential project by Postgreen Homes in Fishtown Proper. Designed by Interface Studio Architects, these homes are targeting LEED Platinum and Postgreen’s President Chad Ludeman tells me he can see no reason why they won’t achieve that level of certification (just like the 100k House which also took home the USGBC’s 2010 LEED-H Project of the Year). Here’s a little background on this stunning new development in Philadelphia:
This is a gut kitchen renovation by owners/designers Matthew D. Emerson, LEED AP, and his wife, Courtney, in Philadelphia. The Emersons employed a team of local Northern Liberties construction professionals and a sustainable approach with reclaimed materials, energy-efficient technology, greater insulation, low-VOC paints, and a green roof visible from the upper level of the 1907-built brick rowhouse.
Last time I mentioned Jet Prefab,* the company had just released an affordable home plan called The One Story. That contemporary design has been tweaked and expanded for a new design called the Tess House that I want to share. It was inspired by a customer dreaming of a writer’s house on Shelter Island in New York.
