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.
San Antonio-based Lake|Flato, an architectural firm with several AIA COTE Top 10 green projects, this week announced its latest endeavor in the world of prefab with the Porch House. Porch House is an eco-friendly home that combines factory-built modules and custom outdoor elements, such as porches, breezeways, carports, and terraces. The result is a contemporary, site-specific, LEED-certified home that can be delivered in about six- to nine-months after the inception of design.
Dwell has the story on this 8'x40' container space in San Antonio designed by Jim Poteet. The tiny retreat – living space, bathroom, and sink and counter – is sandwiched by a foundation of recycled telephone poles and roof of lush greenery. The container also has bamboo flooring and wallcovering, an electric composting toilet from Sun-Mar, a mini-split heating and cooling system, and large floor-to-ceiling windows and doors to allow natural light. This illustrates, with impressive flare, what can be done with containers, don’t you agree?
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).
