The Seattle Home Show opens its doors today at Qwest Field and ideabox will be debuting a brand new design called the Island Cottage.  The 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 625 square-foot home was designed as a recreational cottage for places like the San Juan Islands, a home for small footprint urban infill, or an ancillary living space for an accessory dwelling unit.  Like all ideabox models, the Island Cottage is certified by Energy Star and Earth Advantage programs — all materials are selected for resource efficiency and performance. 

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When we first brought news of Blu Homes in July, the company was on the cusp of something interesting.  Since our first article, they've been busy with plans to design and build innovative, sustainable homes.  They've also been crunching the numbers and working on ways to design and build prefab homes that are legitimately affordable.  And with all the talk recently about prefab and affordability, we thought it'd be interesting to revisit a couple development projects of Blu Homes.  They have two homes in the pipeline that, I think, illustrate the case for affordable, modern, and green homes.

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GreenPod, a company run by architect and environmentalist Ann Raab, designs and builds compact modular homes that are sustainable, healthy, and energy efficient.  The amazing thing about this company is their full-circle design approach, which aims to help clients create a complete green home right down to their bathroom towels and artwork. 

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Earlier this year, we mentioned the high desert, off-grid itHouse by Taalman Koch Architecture and readers loved it.  Now, Taalman Koch has launched their new itHouse website and announced news of their Three Junipers development project.  Three Junipers is a planned community that will have three, 5-acre properties for pre-sale.  The properties come with a building pad, foundation, and plans for a 1600 sf, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom itHouse.  At Three Junipers, itHouses will be off-grid and powered by both solar PV and solar thermal systems.  Plans include a Poliform chefs kitchen, covered dining patio, outdoor solar heated Plunge pool, suspended indoor Fireorb fireplace, outdoor courtyards with fireplaces, and covered 2 car carports. 

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This home is the first LEED Platinum certified home in the Sacramento area.  Located in Folsom, this "Home of the Future" is the product of a collaboration between BP Solar, OCR Solar & Roofing, R.J. Walter Homes, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.  Working together, the focus of the home was to design it using state-of-the-art energy efficient materials.  It has dual pane windows, solar-assisted hot water and space heating, LED lighting, energy efficient appliances, and advanced framing and insulation. 

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