Trends in House Plans, Home Design & Home Building
Posted in General, Home Design, Remodeling on Mar 21st, 2008
This last week was the The International Home and Housewares Show 2008 in Chicago. A main focus for many companies was greening up their product line. CNET News gave a thorough report on several of the stand-outs. Among the featured goodies that CNET found are a power strip that tells you how much power you’re [...]
Posted in Construction Methods, Green Building Info., Home Design, Remodeling on Mar 17th, 2008
An important aspect of sustainability is preserving the buildings we can and transforming them into renewed and efficient structures. The unfortunate reality is that remodeling can be a tiring and cumbersome process that leaves a bad taste in your mouth (that’s the mold). Thankfully, remodeling homes is now being recognized and aided. The USGBC and [...]
Posted in Building Technology, Green Building Info., Home Design on Mar 5th, 2008
SMIT, a sustainable design start-up company, has developed an interesting, potentially ground breaking, and completely simple idea called GROW. Solar energy scientists have been trying to imitate photosynthesis for a while now. They’ve done an excellent job of it, and I’m continually impressed with newer techs and better availability. In this sense, GROW is not [...]
Posted in Building Technology, Green Building Info., Home Design on Feb 15th, 2008
useful + agreeable house by Atelier Tekuto is available exclusively through useful + agreeable (www.ua.tv). useful + agreeable (u+a) is a multimedia company that specializes in travel and design. Their purpose is to “present a useful + agreeable world.” As part of their quest, they have recently paired up with Japanese architect Atelier Tekuto to [...]
Posted in Building Technology, Green Building Info., Home Design on Jan 7th, 2008
I just read an interesting article about New Urbanism, a movement against sprawling cities and our dependence on the automobile. The philosophy claims that we can retrofit our cities into denser neighborhoods where all of our needs, or most of them, can be within walking distance. This includes work, school, shopping, entertainment, etc. Essentially, the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 19th, 2007
Remember the post I put up a week or so ago about green hacking? Well my source is a Do-It-Yourselfer out of Vermont, Ben Hewitt, who is living off the grid. Since his energy needs came from a gas generator (much more expensive than electical bills) and his entire system must be maintained by him [...]
Posted in Construction Methods, Green Building Info., Home Design on Dec 14th, 2007
John Brown, founder of the Slow Home movement, is fighting to slow down the housing process. His enemy is the cookie cutter neighborhoods that focus on quantity and speed, not quality and sustainability. Think of it in terms of food. The Slow Food movement was agaisnt the Fast Food industry and its inherent health risks. [...]
Posted in Building Technology, Green Building Info. on Dec 12th, 2007
I just ran across an interesting monthly (so far) blog about green hacking. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Basically, green hacking is modifying ordinary household items into energy saving machines. This is at least a fun blog to read, and at best an exciting way to darken your shade of green and save [...]
Posted in Building Technology, Green Building Info., Home Design on Nov 16th, 2007
Straw Bale homes have been a hot topic lately. Their R-value is outstanding, and they are quite earth friendly given the rapidly renewable resources they use: namely straw and clay. I checked it out (google straw bale houses or house plans) and was pleased to find plenty of sites willing to share the trade secrets [...]
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