Green Building : Jetson Green

Georgia Manufactured Home Gets LEED Platinum, Skips Costly Green Gizmos

When you think of manufactured homes, you might think of the ranch house with vinyl siding that you gingerly pass on the interstate as it travels on the back of a wide-load truck.  You might also think about a LEED Platinum home and imagine a roof spotted with photovoltaic panels, windmill in the front yard, and geothermal dug deep into the ground.  The newest offering from New World Home turns both of these ideas on their heads.

Maison IDEKIT Quebec Container Home

Using seven recycled shipping containers, architect Bernard Morin and wife Joyce Labelle built this contemporary residence in St. Adele, Quebec.  The home is the first of many to come for their new company, Maison Idekit, which will help homeowners turn containers into architecturally unique, and inexpensive, homes.  The company has two more residential projects set to break ground in the next couple months using a total of twelve container modules.

Reclaimed Prefab Auctioned for $75k

After nine bids on eBay, some lucky duck ended up with a reclaimed prefab for $75,100.  The prefab was built by Reclaimed Space for Dwell on Design and the proceeds went to both Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles and Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity.  Ecofabulous created the interior using a number of stylish, green products.  According to the eBay listing, this 400 square foot home included the following:

LionForce ecoLiving Custom Green Home

San Antonio-based LionForce built this efficient home as a prototype for their ecoLiving System -- a web-based configurator that will help homeowners design homes and build them through a national network of certified building partners.  LionForce says their homes are efficient, healthy, low-maintenance, quickly constructed, and cost effective.  This first prototype home, the T-2 home, has already received a 2009 Green Building Award from the City of San Antonio (in the custom home under 2,200 square feet category). 

A New Lazor Designed Dwell Home

Some of you old school prefab enthusiasts may be interested in knowing that a brand new Dwell Home designed by Charlie Lazor (i.e., also doing the Flatpak House) is for sale in Sausalito, California.  61 Wolfback Ridge was just completed this year.  The 4,200 square foot home contains 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and an additional 2,400 square feet of decks and outdoor spaces.  It can be yours for current price of $3,650,000. 

Green Cubed Modern Eco Lux Home

This is the Green Cubed house, which was designed by Nelse Design + Build.  Located on an infill lot in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, the 5-star home was recently the superstar of a Green Built home tour.  And for those in the area, this modern, single-family home is listed for sale for $900,00, which includes four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms in a 2,667 square-foot package.  Some of its many green features include the following:

Vibrant Columbia City Green Homes

Columbia City Green is a Case Design + Project Management development of two homes in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle.  The grand opening for this first home was last weekend, and Case Architects was kind enough to provide these interior and exterior photos.  It's Built Green certified and includes three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and a bonus room -- all for the price of $699,000 (if still available).  In addition to the vibrant green CertainTeed Fiber Cement siding, the home features a number of other green products and elements:

Small Style at Dwell on Design 2009

Dwell on Design keeps getting bigger and better every year, and the Dwell Outdoor exhibit promises to be just right for these (un)extravagant times.  The modern design event will be held from Friday, June 26, through Sunday, June 28, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  The entire program will be diverse and compelling, but I'm particularly intrigued by the lineup of four small structures planned for the 15,000 square feet of outdoor exhibit space.  Check these out:

Tiny House Iterative Design Process

In the news, there's a lot of talk about process journalism and using a feedback loop to evolve stories.  It made me think about iterative design and the potential role of blogs and new media to transform projects.  Probably, one of the most interesting and current examples I can think of comes from Michael Janzen, who's behind Tiny House Design, Nine Tiny Feet, and Tiny Free House, among other ventures.  Using Google SketchUp, Janzen transformed a shed cluster (through comments, analysis, feedback, and subsequent iterations) into a sustainable dogtrot home.  Check it out:

Oregon Shift House Seeks Passive House

Last week, Willamette Week Online published an article called "Futurehaus," which we linked to in our Saturday Week in Review.  The article describes an Oregon Passive House project in the works by Root Design Build.  The house is referred to as the Shift House, which, awkwardly enough, is not to be confused with the other Shift Home that we covered recently.  But that's not to take anything away from it.  With construction set to begin next month, upon completion in September, it'll be one of only a few certified Passive Houses in the United States.