Reclaimed wood adds warmth and character to any environment, but unlike virgin wood, sourcing, installing, finishing, and caring for reclaimed wood comes with its own set of challenges.  This five-part series discusses reclaimed wood benefits and current trends, as well as incorporates many of Viridian Reclaimed Wood’s past blog posts pertaining to sourcing and choosing a finish for reclaimed wood in residential construction and remodeling.

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I caught up with Brian Phillips, principal of Interface Studio Architects, in Miami recently while he was down as a visiting critic at the University of Miami School of Architecture.  Based in Philadelphia, ISA is a prominent architecture and research firm on the leading edge of green building and pre-fab construction with notable projects such as the 100k House and The Modules, featured on Jetson Green a few years ago.  Here is our discussion on the work of ISA and direction of the green building industry.

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One thing I’ve noticed is the fact that home building is changing in a big way.  In order to capture what’s going on across the country, I thought it would be interesting to talk with influencers and innovators about things like tiny houses, prefabrication, sustainable design, high performance construction, and home technology.  For this first interview, I was able to exchange emails with Sam Hagerman, co-owner of Hammer & Hand and president of the Passive House Alliance US, on the topic of ADUs and Passive Houses.

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When the Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago wanted a “smart” house on their grounds to showcase energy-efficient and healthy living at its best, architect Michelle Kaufmann was a natural choice to design it.  After all, her passion for sustainability, coupled with an impeccable eye for style and plenty of award-winning projects under her belt, has made Michelle an authority on good green design.  The Smart Home: Green and Wired exhibit has inspired thousands of visitors with its perfect mix of high and low-tech green building techniques, materials and gadgets in a friendly, modern setting.

Current and recent projects for Michelle Kaufmann Studio include a sustainable neighborhood, a co-housing complex for some very with-it Franciscan nuns, and several private residences for green-minded clients.  With so much hands-on experience with many of the materials and technologies we write about here at Jetson Green, I was eager to pick Michelle’s brain.

I proposed a series of open-ended questions starting with “What is the one green product …”, hoping the busy designer would find it a fun, thought-provoking exercise.  Luckily she did — and I hope you find her responses as illuminating and insightful as I have!

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There’s something about the beginning of a year that makes the fortune tellers come out in droves.  But I guess it’s fun to ponder and pontificate about the future — to string data together to predict what will happen in the next 365 days.  Buildipedia took a shot at identifying green home trends for 2012, and here are the five that they list:

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I’ve pulled together projects, mostly homes, of all kinds — new, old, modern, traditional, etc — that we discussed in the last year.  These projects either obtained or sought LEED Platinum certification from the USGBC, and they’re some of the greener homes you’ll find most anywhere.  Click the links below for hours and hours of reading.

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