Green Building : Jetson Green

New Library of LEED Pilot Credits

The USGBC has unveiled a half-dozen new credits for LEED which are being investigated in a pilot program currently underway.  Pilot LEED credits include: Life Cycle Assessment of Building Assemblies and Materials; PBT Source Reduction; Medical and Process Equipment Efficiency; Innovative Ventilation; and Preliminary Integrative Project Planning & Design (2 credits).

Kebonization Process Creates an Alternative to Tropical Hardwoods

The photograph above may not be what you would expect.  The outdoor bench in this detail is not made from an unsustainably harvested tropical hardwood.  The wood itself is actually maple, a widely available species that can be farmed and harvested without ripping up acres of rainforest.  But maple and many other similar woods are too susceptible to decay and rot when used unprotected outdoors.  The usual alternative has been treatment with chemical pressure treatment.  Now, through a method called kebonization, a Norwegian company, Kebony ASA, treats soft woods in a non-toxic process that allows readily available woods to be used for outdoor uses.

Draft LEED 2009 Review and Discussion

As we noted here a few weeks ago, the draft for a new version of U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program was released for public comment and review.  In general, as a LEED Accredited Professional, what I saw in the program looked good.  The changes that are proposed will make improvements to the system.   Below is a discussion of changes we can look forward to in the next generation of LEED. 

Sophisticated Simplicity with Shipping Containers

The Skinners Playground project by Phooey Architects of Melbourne, Australia is a project that makes compelling use of shipping containers.  Many container architecture projects do little that breaks out of the strong rectilinear form of the component boxes.  While only four shipping containers were used for Skinners Playground, they are cut and amended in such as way as to make much more of them than simply four box-shaped rooms.  Even if the exteriors had been painted over, it would be immediately obvious that this was built from shipping containers.  But, at the same time, this is a case of the whole being far more than merely a sum of its parts.

Lighthouse, UK's First Zero-Emission, Carbon Neutral Home

In England, a handful of efficient demonstration homes have been built on the grounds of the Building Research Establishment Ltd, including "The Lighthouse," which is the first net zero carbon house in the UK.  The house is also the first to attain level six in the Code for Sustainable Homes, which indicates that it is carbon neutral. The two-bedroom house is only 93.3 square meters (barely over 1000 sq. ft.) in a 2-1/2 story building.  The building has solar panels and evacuated solar tubes on its roof, as well as making use of passive measures with ventilation chimneys.  It also incorporates rainwater catchment as part of the building design.

The materials used include highly insulated, airtight building fabric which has been designed to provide generous daylight levels and includes effective solar control, together with integrated building services based around a platform of renewable and sustainable technologies. These include water efficiency techniques, renewable energy technologies, passive cooling and ventilation, as well as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).

Grand Rapids Art Museum, First LEED Gold Museum

Grand Rapids, Michigan is one of the greenest cities in the country, at least if you go by the number of LEED certified buildings it has.  A couple of years ago, Grand Rapids was #5 on a list of cities with the most LEED certified buildings, surpassing even cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Washington DC.  Grand Rapids also has embraced renewable energy for the city.  But Grand Rapids' latest claim to green fame is that it is now the home to the first new construction LEED-certified art museum in the country. 

The building is a 125,000 sf structure designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of Workshop Hakomori Yantrasast (wHY Architects).  The Grand Rapids Art Museum opened just a few weeks prior to David Adjaye's Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, which is also expecting a LEED Gold.

Adaptive Reuse for LEED Wis Tavern

The first Gold certified LEED-H home in Illinois is built from the renovation of an old neighborhood tavern.  The 3,800 square foot building is used by the owners as both a residence and as the offices of their company:  Smog Veil Records.  The label has adopted an "eco-friendly" set of principles, and the owners felt their home/office ought to reflect those values as well.  Daylighting, recycled materials, and efficient appliances were all part of this project.  Inside, some of the floors are made of a terrazzo made from recycled glass and chunks of old vinyl records.  (That's probably the only kind of vinyl flooring anyone should have.)

Extreme Recycling in the Big Dig House

The Big Dig House by Single Speed Design is a testament to recycling.  More than 600,000 pounds of material were recovered from the massive Boston transit project known as the Big Dig and were reused to make this 3,400 square foot house.  Temporary road sections (formerly used as access ramps for a bridge), support beams that shored up a slurry wall, and other pieces were saved from being sent to a landfill and instead became the bones of this unique home.