This is an update to a prior article about Tierra del Sol, a community of 22 prefab, starter homes, located in Stockton, California. Built in modules by California-based ZETA Communities, the homes in Tierra del Sol have three bedrooms, two baths, and 1,268 square feet. They’re homes are also expected to use about 45% less energy each than a typical home.
When we first profiled Anchorage Builders in 2010, they were in the construction phase of North Carolina’s first Passive House. We followed up with the project in a subsequent post and were quite impressed with the completed home, both aesthetically and sustainably. Building on this successful experience, Anchorage and architect Jay Fulkerson have recently collaborated on yet another Chapel Hill home designed with Passive House building methods.
This is the Live Work Home, one of the winning proposals (with the R-House) in the From the Ground Up Competition in Syracuse, New York, designed by Cook+Fox Architects. The home was awarded LEED Platinum certification earlier this month, a fitting one-year anniversary since the homeowners John and Kathy Miranda moved into the home in November 2010. Here’s more about this beautiful, durable home with an inventive design.
Over Thanksgiving break, I enjoyed reading about this small, energy-efficient home in North Carolina built using the Harbinger plan offered by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Built to International Building Code requirements, the plan includes a loft, home office, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and deck — tightly placed in less than 500 square feet! Details are hard to come by, but Tumbleweed sells this plan for $695 and estimates that it costs about $33,000 in materials to build.
Southtown Greenbound is a new, short documentary of an award-winning prototype development — the Biering Project — that’s both affordable and sustainable in San Antonio, Texas. Biering includes two, 1,500 square-foot homes wrapped in a diaphanous aluminum screen that reduces solar heat gain, fosters privacy during the day, and illuminates during the night. The screen truly distinguishes the homes.
This mid-century modern home in Savannah, Georgia — originally developed by John Ahern in 1955 — was recently listed as a Best Green House in Green Source Magazine. The home went through a full restoration and renovation directed by owners Cornelia Stumpf and Celestino Piralla of CSCP Consult, who ended up receiving a Silver Award for a Whole House Renovation under $200,000 from Qualified Remodeler Magazine and the President’s Award from the Historic Savannah Foundation in summer 2011.
