There are several green events to attend while the kids are out of school this summer. Bring them along and make it an educational vacation!

Mark Your Calendars for these Upcoming Green Events

• NY13 Passive House Symposium – June 8, 2013 in New York City, New York
• GreenerBuilder 2013 – June 12, 2013 in San Francisco, California
• BALLE 2013 (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) – June 12-14, 2013 in Buffalo, New York
• Sustainability and the C-Suite – June 13, 2013 – Online Webinar from University of Oregon
• LOHAS Business Conference (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) – June 18-20, 2013 in Boulder, Colorado
• Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) National Geothermal Summit – June 26-27, 2013 – Reno, Nevada
• InterSolar North America: Connecting Solar Business – July 8-11, 2013 in San Francisco, California
• Habitat X Summer National Conference – July 30 – August 2, 2013 in Helena, Montana
• Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing: Award Presentation Dinner – September 4, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
• Solar Power International 2013 – October 21-24, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois

Got news or events that you want to see reported here? Fill out the contact form and select “Submit a tip” or “Submit a press release” and ask that it be directed to Lynne.

Looking for a green way to spend your summer vacation this year? Less than a one-hour drive east of Seattle, Washington, you can find the Tolt MacDonald Park & Campground nestled in the Tolt River-John MacDonald Park, which is run by King County Natural Resources and Parks.

The Tolt Campground unveiled its first new Camping Container last September, an upcycled surplus 24-foot shipping container that utilizes recycled and sustainable materials to provide comfortable accommodations to visiting families (it sleeps up to four in a double/single futon bunk bed and a futon chair that converts to a single bed).

The sustainable features of the project, developed by Joel Egan of Seattle design firm, HyBrid Arc, include LED lighting, radiant heating, use of low-VOC materials. His treatment was the winning design in a contest run by King County that required submissions to be green and focus on recycle and reuse concepts. If you’re interested in “tiny home” living, staying in the Camping Container is a great way to find out if you are capable of living this small and to get inspiration for your own upcycled shipping container designs.

Located on the Park’s west side, across from the Snoqualmie River, the Camping Container site is walk-in only on a path that crosses a 500-foot suspension bridge. It is available for overnight stays starting from $50 per night on weekends between May 1 through September 30.

Tolt Park also has camping areas for tents, recreational vehicles, and small and large groups. Six yurt structures that sleep up to seven people are available for two-day minimum stays on weekends and three day minimum stay on holidays.

Casa CorManca is a sustainable home that was designed by Paul Cremoux Studio and is located in Mexico City, where sustainable construction has yet to make a significant impact on some of the world’s worst urban air pollution levels. Cremoux says that many of his clients do not yet realize the importance of a sustainable design strategy in heavily-populated city that is located in a hot, dry desert climate.

Behind a stoic slate facade, a three-story vertical garden is the centerpiece of sustainability features and is capable of moderating internal temperatures, improving air quality, creating humidity, and absorbing 267 kg of carbon dioxide per year. Beyond the practicality and beauty of the green wall, which is made up of over 4,000 plants, Cremoux has designed it to act as a light curtain, as demonstrated in a artful video animation of the home

With a site that is only 39’ x 42’, Cremoux has created a spacious floor plan that provides ample living space and green features that include the use of recyclable content materials and VOC paint, cross ventilation, daylighting, and passive energy-temperature control strategies. Heat is controlled by three heat exhaustion chimneys.

Residential designer, Keith Dewey, has designed what is considered to be the first shipping container building in Canada: a home in which he lives with his wife and daughter in Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. Built on a 42 by 40 foot lot, the home comprises 2,000 square feet of living space and was constructed of eight twenty-foot shipping containers that were modified to include windows, doors, and a “proper roof.”

Dewey was inspired to build the home, which he calls “Zigloo Domestique,” while attending the Ontario College of Art and Design’s environmental design program. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, features a salvaged exterior staircase, and has saved an estimated seventy trees. On the lower floor is located a bathroom, recreation room that can be used as a bedroom, and the mechanical room. The main floor layout is an open, circulating area of living spaces and the upper floor is home to the master bedroom, bathroom, and a guest room that can be used as a den.

Dewey’s design firm, Zigloo, is working on additional shipping container projects that are in various stages between concept and construction.

The CargoSpace lofts and landing community in Devon, Alberta will be constructed of over 2,000 shipping containers to create townhouse and condominium units, retail space, offices, a hotel, and community areas. Sustainability features will include solar hot water, photovoltaic panels, grey water reclamation, and a green roof system.

The Eco-Cargo CargoSpace residential unit specifications are for 800 square feet of living space from two containers to create a two bedroom, one bathroom home with a green roof and PV solar. Concept plans are available to purchase for $200.

Facit Homes has patented the D-Process, a high-tech machine that turns a 3D computer model of a home into functional pieces that can be snapped together to build an entire house directly on-site.

With the help of D-Process, the company designs detailed pieces of each home on a computer and cuts them on a CNC router, and the result is plywood pieces that are light and easy to assemble right at the site. This maintains a quick process for homes that easily snap together with minimal costs and waste.

Each home also has a thermal envelope that seals in heat and energy. There are also options for solar thermal systems and solar panels, depending on the specific site and requirements.

The D-Process is in the running for a 2013 Index Award, which is part of an organization that seeks to provide sustainable solutions to design and lifestyle challenges.

Discuss it here on our new forum - http://bit.ly/13FSdY7

For more information and photos on homes that have been built with the help of D-Process, visit facit-homes.com.

Designed for private investor, Craig Ehrlich, by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, this 1,150 square foot single-family home was built on a lot that is adjacent to the Ehrlich family home that was designed by the same firm about ten years ago, which was built around a garden and featured a graywater recycling system, photovoltaic system, and radiant heating.

Originally conceived to serve as a separate office space for Ehrlich, the two-level guesthouse forms a compound with the main dwelling, similar to a traditional Chinese courtyard, with a saltwater pool and its own two-car garage. The floor plan features a two-story tall living room, kitchen, upstairs bedroom, and two bathrooms.

Several sustainability features have led to the home’s LEED Platinum certification: natural lighting, lack of an air conditioning system thanks to natural ventilation, 3.9 kilowatt photovoltaic system, motorized skylights, radiant-heat flooring, and a trellis and wooden screening that is constructed of FSC-certified Western red cedar.

Since ground broke on the Start.Home, the students who are designing and building the Stanford University entry in the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon have been learning their way around the construction site from five Carpenters Union instructors. CU is a Platinum-level project sponsor, joining other companies like DIRECTV, Intel, General Electric, Applied Materials, Boxh, Pine Cone Lumber, and Mitsubishi in an effort to change the way that green home building construction problems are solved.

Integrating technology into a home that can grow as needs change, the Start.Home design allows for customization and additions that are based on a pre-engineered, pre-fabricated start.core that can meet net-zero energy efficiency standards.

The Stanford design team aims to provide “efficiency without sacrificing creativity” such that each house can be an expression of its owner. The 12’x15’x10’ start.core features natural lighting, open spaces, a high roof that permits passive ventilation, and an emphasis on connecting the interior to the outdoors. The basic unit provides for a bathroom, kitchen, mechanical component access, and living areas. The start.core can be shipped on a standard truck trailer and installed on a lot for construction and customization.

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are used for the primary structural system of the Start.Home, cut-to-size before delivery on-site to facilitate quick and easy construction. A 7kW photovoltaic system will provide about 30 kilowatt-hours a day and feed excess energy into centralized energy grids.

The USDE Solar Decathlon is a global competition that has been designed to promote solar technology through the selection of twenty teams that present their home designs to compete on ten criteria: architecture, comfort zone, market appeal, hot water, engineering, appliances, communications, home entertainment, affordability, and energy balance.

The team will dismantle and re-assemble the Start.Home prototype at the Solar Decathlon in October in Irvine Park, California.

Design and Images copyright of the architects – Koop architecture + media

Celebrating its grand opening in the Eastern Market area of Detroit on May 19, 2013, where visitors came from as far away as Berlin and Paris, FIRST CONTAINER, the first structures for a planned 36-unit boutique hotel and community space that is being built from upcycled shipping containers has garnered national attention as the “most important hotel in America.” Collision Works is being made possible by funding from a Kickstarter campaign and partnership with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center and Eastern Market Corporation.

FIRST CONTAINER is constructed from two shipping containers. One container will host retail space and the other is a “mini hotel lobby” with free Wifi, areas for gathering and working, and a stage. Designed to build community through story-telling activities and events, it will remain at its current site for six months before it is integrated into the permanent hotel site.

Design and Images copyright of the architects – Koop architecture + media

While the Kickstarter campaign that was initiated by Shel Kimen raised $40,000, enough to build FIRST CONTAINER, an additional $4 million is needed to complete construction on the entire hotel, for which she has already presold 35 rooms at prices ranging from $75 to $300 per night.

Design and Images copyright of the architects – Koop architecture + media

Current participants in the project include KOOP AM Architects (schematics, design, and technology consulting), IBG Detroit (construction build project leader) SG Blocks (providers of boxes and engineering), Spirit of Space (filming and documentary production), RecoveryPark (community relations), and TechTown (administrative and operations support).

Built with recycled and salvaged materials from a dilapidated and deconstructed cottage that was already present on the 0.35 acre lot, the west side of this 2,000 square foot home faces Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. Sweeping views of the lake are broken only by a granite fireplace.

Following the original footprint of the cottage, with the addition of 375 square feet on the east side, Ernie Ruskey, AIA, of Tektonika Studio Architects worked with builder Tim Frost to minimize energy use during the cold winter months while protecting the landscape. They have achieve a 50 percent total energy savings over a 2004 IECC code-level home, an EPA Energy Star 5-Star Plus rating, and a HERS rating of 57. Ninety-five percent of the home is daylit and can be ventilated or cooled with operable windows. Total energy used is approximately 104.2 MMBtu.

All of the framing joints were caulked and a blower-door test was run before drywall was installed. Windows are double-pane with low-E coating. Glazing was added on the west and south sides where shade is provided by four-foot overhangs.

Moisture levels are controlled by an air-to-air heat exchanger. Heating loads are managed by an efficient natural gas boiler. Hydronic in-floor heating is provided on the main level with used Runtal radiators supplying heat to the upper level.

Under cabinet and recessed lighting is supplied by LED or CFL, while incandescents are retained where their warmth is most effectively used (such as above the kitchen island).

Local materials used in construction include maple for floor planks and the kitchen island counter, stone for the fireplace, entry foyer slate tiles, and outdoor bluestone pavers.

A new partnership between Silicon Energy and CrystaLite that was announced at the recent Living Future unConference in Seattle is bringing a new alternative to photovoltaic solar roof implementations and ground-mounted installations: the solar structure. PV-integrated structures provide home and business owners with extensive flexibility in the design and implementation of solar power when a solar roof is not cost effective or to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing integration of solar panels with structural design of patio and deck coverings, carport coverings, and picnic shelters.

“A paradigm shift is needed in how we look at PV,” says Gary Shaver, President of Silicon Energy. “We need to think beyond the roof and fields and integrate PV even more into our local communities, bringing the beauty and benefits of distributed generation of PV into our built environment. The partnership between Silicon Energy and CrystaLite will provide the tools to do this with pre-engineered PV structure packages that combine beauty and functionality.”

Silicon Energy manufactures durable, double-glass PV modules and CrystaLite manufactures sunrooms, skylights, and railing systems. The partnership will facilitate the provisioning of customizable, pre-engineered structures with integrated PV solar panels that can be tied to the gird or backed with batteries. The solar modules have a 125 psf load rating, a Class-A fire safety rating, and are backed by Silicon Energy’s 30-year warranty.

Double glass solar panels allow for light to transmit through the solar module which features a mounting system that provides full enclosure and protection of system wiring. When configured on an open frame in a shingle-like manner, the mounting system can allow for shedding of snow, rain, debris, and dirt while optimizing solar energy production.

“This partnership raises the bar for PV installations, allowing PV to be more integral to the design, and architecturally pleasing,” said John Westerfield, Marketing Manager for CrystaLite. “Our approach makes it a viable option for residential and commercial integrated PV structures, building resilience into our environment with onsite, distributed self-generation of power. Our relationship with Silicon Energy brings new meaning to a community collaborative business model––both companies are located in Snohomish County, WA and are focused on delivering high quality, high durability structural solutions.”

Installations of PV-integrated structures from Silicon Energy and CrystaLite may qualify for a Federal Renewable Energy Tax Credit.

LINKS TO IMAGES:

http://www.silicon-energy.com/PDFS/Partner%20Solutions/CrystaLite-and-Silicon-Energy-PV-Integrated-Structures-Brochure-05-2013-Final.pdf