IIDEX and The Green Building Festival – connecting the Interior Design Show and The Green Building Festival, this event always showcases new products and some very interesting design competitions. It features a range of professional seminars that are current and thought-provoking. Based on its image and design focus, I’ll need to get a bit more dressed up as it lime-lights some pretty posh attendees – sadly no jeans and work boots here.

Construct Canada – 3 shows in 1, with an emphasis on durable products and leading-edge technologies for all aspects of construction. The continuing education selection is second to none here and it’s a great venue for connecting with the most current information surrounding the sustainability movement and green building in general. It’s the must-attend event every year and this one can be experienced in boots and jeans (albeit clean ones).

OIDB won’t be exhibiting at either show but the team will be in attendance, soaking up plenty of new stuff and reconnecting with colleagues. Hope to see you there.

IIDEX and Construct Canada – It must be fall in Toronto is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

We’ve recently heard the science behind the Global Warming pundits (challenged last year) has been vindicated by a landslide of evidence corroborating the climate change theory (see www.skepticalscience.com). Our reliance on fossil fuels and the large percentage of fuel used to power, heat and cool our homes and businesses largely impacts our per capita Carbon Footprint.

This isn’t the only area the built environment impacts:

Landfill Waste

A large percentage of construction and demolition waste (including lumber) ends up in landfills each year (in some areas greater than 40% of all waste is from the built environment). This is detrimental in many ways since a large percentage of this waste can actually be reused or recycled on either construction sites (reclaimed lumber, etc.) or by manufacturers in producing new materials (drywall, concrete, etc). Read some landfill and construction waste statistics and their impact regionally.

Water Use

The fact that we are running out of fresh water in North America (and globally) is shocking to many. Our thoughts go to developing countries when we hear ‘water crisis’ but we are not as well off as one might think. Fresh water supply on our planet makes up roughly 2½% of total water supply. That means in many areas a great deal of energy and technology must be applied to create fresh water (reverse osmosis, etc.) and a miniscule portion of this is applied toward potable uses. Residentially, we use most of this supply to bathe, flush toilets, wash clothes and water our lawns. Read the Water Use Statistics on the American Water Association website.

Some Sobering Statistics

The built environment made up:
39% of US Carbon Emissions in 2005 (Source: Energy Information Administration).
40% of Primary Energy Use
70% of Electricity Use
17% of Freshwater Use

Read this PDF for more information.

I’m a realist in looking at this data and the immense footprint our homes and businesses have relating to the items above. Will we wake up and implement the needed changes or are our heads so firmly stuck in the sand that we will remain oblivious to the realities at hand?

I truly hope that we are the solution and have reached the point of a paradigm shift towards environmental sustainability. It will need to happen sooner than later and it definitely should start at home. See the ‘Four Years. Go.‘ website for some compelling reasons why making positive changes are critical and what you can do to start the ball rolling.

Our Homes Are More Environmentally Impactful Than We Think is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

How does a home, a physical object, connect with something as ethereal as culture? What possible values are associated with this deeper connection? How do we achieve this?

Firstly, a home’s design and use of materials may be true to local traditional/vernacular architecture. This is low hanging fruit in every sense because most of our communities are rooted in some history, even in relatively young North America. Buildings connect us to our regional heritage be it farming, industry or something in-between. Materials used may be indigenous to that area and include locally harvested wood, clay brick or even fieldstone. A contemporary design, linked with the right materials and connecting with vernacular architecture can fit very well indeed, as shown in these examples from Stedman Blower Architects.

Social values/culture are somewhat more difficult to link to an architectural form. Yet this is seen in many communities that are connected through a common need or cultural heritage. I’m fortunate enough to spend a good deal of time in The Bahamas and have seen first-hand how social and cultural connections form a major part of life there. Small settlements are diverse in nature and many do not have specialized facilities regarding eldercare and care for the young and displaced. Residents will open their doors to the greater community and share resources and shelter, regardless of socio-economic status. Another example is a communal gathering place to celebrate collectively. These building structures may take the form transient shacks or tents and offer limited protection, yet serve as a place of congregation for the community to celebrate the simpler things in life. Check out one of these events on the Island of Eleuthera, central Bahamas.

The resurgence of the front porch concept is a local form that connects us with our neighbors and beyond. Our current design trend has seen us become isolated and at arms length, living in homes that have insulated us from the outside world in order to protect and sanctify. I think The Bahamians have it the right way around and we are just starting to get that here (again) in North America, rediscovering a concept that has somehow gotten lost in our apex-consumer society, valuing size and quantity over community and quality.

Yes the site is important but let’s not stop there, rather strive to connect with the cultural significance of that site and the larger community it is a part of. Tapping this potential affords us a connection with the past, while still having both feet planted firmly in the present – truly the best of both worlds and the proper starting point for a sustainable home and lifestyle.

Should Homes Connect with the Social and Cultural Fabric of our Communities? is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

I really love the extent these global teams go to in pulling out all the stops, showing off some very interesting design and material elements. It really ups the ante for the next U.S. version in the fall of 2011.

See the article on inhabitat.com for further information and photos.

I would love to enter an OIDB project through collaboration with one of our local universities. Maybe 2013…

European Solar Decathlon in Madrid, Spain is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

Caretakers Cabin, 350 s.f., Eleuthera, The Bahamas

House sizes in North America have been steadily growing since the 1950’s (except for a slight right-sizing in the 1980’s) through 2009, when the market dropped. This downsizing trend is certainly connected with market factors, but I think there’s more to it than just economics.

In 1950 – 983 s.f.
In 1970 – 1,500 s.f.
In 1990 – 2,080 s.f.
In 2004 – 2,349 s.f.
In 2008 – 2,473 s.f.
In 2009 – 2,422 s.f.
(Source: NAHB Housing Facts, Figures and Trends)

I feel we are on the cusp of a re-sizing movement that considers other factors in the choice to down-size including: rising utility costs, carbon footprint awareness, a growing focus on green building/sustainable housing and the increasing list of products and services available that allow homeowners to weigh the cost and payback advantages of an efficient, durable and right-sized home.

The question remains: Do Green Homes Need To Be Small?

The Pros:

• Small homes cost less to build, or can be built to a much higher standard of fit and finish than a substantially larger home.
• The cost to correctly size mechanicals and to heat and cool a smaller home is less expensive than a larger one.
• Maintenance, cleaning and budgeted capital replacement costs are lower, based on smaller scale designs.
• Smaller homes may fit on smaller or less-than-perfect building sites, providing price advantages in purchase cost and tax burden.
• Small homes fit the buyer demographic re: incoming (first-time homebuyers) and outgoing (empty nest) user groups.

The Cons:

• Can I get all my stuff into a small home?
• Perception that a small home equals lack of affluence (keeping up with the Joneses).

What does a small home need to create that win-win scenario?

Connected Design

A well-sited layout with a small footprint has the appearance and feel of a much larger space. This includes designs connected to the outdoors with correct use of windows and doors, added day-lighting potential and an orientation that allows for passive heating and cooling options while taking in the best views. These elements can be captured easily on the ideal site, but may require some unorthodox thinking when dealing with an infill lot or other location that is less than perfect. This may take the form of a courtyard space to allow for natural lighting and plantings, while maintaining privacy, or a rooftop terrace of garden, which creates its own Zen space away from the busy street below. For further ideas related to small designs and their connectivity with site, check out the Materialicious website.

Flexible Floorplans:

A home that scales its interior space with the needs of its occupants is very sustainable indeed. That same house may fit the needs of a young couple, change to meet this couple’s needs when children arrive and re-scale once again when the nest is empty. A design that can do this without needing additions and major renovations is an advantage in terms of cost and efficiency. One way of establishing this flexibility in a small space is to utilize moveable partitions within the home. These serve to open and close off space, creating a private home office or nursery, while still allowing the space to be opened to the rest of the plan when not in use. Examples of this can be found on the Sliding Door Company website.

A Place for Everything:

Small homes must look at storage space differently than their counterparts. While one can design multiple storage rooms and spaces within the typically sized home, a small home has fewer spaces to focus on single duty solutions. In determining storage needs, the homeowner must look at the typical closet, basement, garage and attic dumping grounds and understand that these may already be utilized for mechanical systems and the like. Storage may be found right under our proverbial noses, in places like the space under the stairs or within the risers, wall-mount shelving that stores and displays items openly, spaces under the bed or even cabinets and shelves that act as room dividers, taking the place of a non-structural interior wall. Double-duty thinking is the minimum here, yet when solutions are reached they appear as much more than simple storage – these now become part of the interior plan, being functional and aesthetically pleasing. See ISS Designs for some ideas.

Small, well designed, houses have the potential to live just as expansively as larger homes, as long as one takes into account site, owner’s needs and a right sizing of the areas we truly live in. In giving up some of the largeness, we may actually better connect with what we actually love about our homes, allowing us to be more efficient and environmentally friendly, while beating the Joneses at their own game.

Do Green Homes Need to be Small? is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

A zero energy building (ZEB) or net zero energy building is a general term applied to a building’s use with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. See Zero Energy Building on Wikipedia.

Two significant design factors for ZEB’s:

1. Reduction of energy demand for a specific design.
2. Supply the lowest impact/carbon neutral energy to the project.

The thought process regarding designs for ZEB’s evolve along the following lines:

1. Need
2. Location
3. Passive Options
4. Assisted Options
5. Mechanicals
6. Interactive Options (smart controls)
7. Commissioning (multi-year process)
8. Improvements (through logging home data and learning from this)
9. Purchase Offsets (carbon) or implement renewable energy on site

Active Systems vs. Passive Designs:

Passive Solar heating design includes increasing temperature thresholds by 1 degree hotter and colder and a focus on night-time cooling options (assisted, if needed) with daylight harvesting tied in with smart controls for both heating and lighting. Solar chimneys may be incorporated in order to avoid the addition of mechanical cooling systems. Occupants will be linked closely with these passive systems in terms of heating and cooling (modifying existing behaviors), including the use of electricity (plug loads, etc.).

Some Systems that Apply:

Heat exchangers have become a design requirement in airtight buildings. These may take the form of HRV’s (north) ERV’s (south) and GFX thermal recovery systems for downpipes (hot water energy recovery).

Ground or water source heat pumps connected with hydronic heating systems may provide winter heating if site conditions allow (typically grid-tied only). Motors with ECM specifications should be utilized. See Brushless DC Electric Motor on Wikipedia.

LED lighting systems will allow substantial savings on energy and provide extremely durable service life. See Light Emitting Diode on Wikipedia.

Renewable Energy:

Renewable Energy may be utilized in off-grid or grid intertie applications. Solar Thermal systems should be incorporated into the design before Photovoltaic’s (PV), as payback is almost always superior. Wind energy in a hybrid system may be considered if site factors allow. Back-up generation will be required for all off-grid systems to augment battery power if the renewables fail. See Renewable Energy on Wikipedia.

Photo courtesy of ceibahamas.org

The purchase of carbon credits for energy and transportation of materials should be considered. Note that purchasing offsets or applying renewable energy is last on the list. Efficiencies in design, materials and passive/assisted systems are more highly weighted and important in a sustainable home than purchasing a large renewable energy system to make up for design/material inefficiencies.

Rating Systems:

There are currently a developing number of rating tools and systems on the market designed to help model and measure the performance a Net Zero home. They apply current and new best practices to ensure the building performance meets expectations, when newly commissioned and in years to come.

Models include:

PassivHaus
Building America Prototype

More models and rating tools are becoming available, worldwide, a trend that points to the growing acceptance of high performance buildings and a renewed demand by homeowners to make their homes a more comfortable, healthier and carbon neutral place to live.

High Performance Sustainable Designs: A Thought Process is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.

Great – only positive synergies and absolutely no downside, right? Well, maybe…

The design process of a green home requires an integrated approach from the very beginning, one that includes the future occupant (you) and a team of specialists including the architect, engineers, contractor and material suppliers. You are now an integral part of the team and it may be somewhat daunting for many who don’t have this type of experience or are less inclined to become active in the process because of a perceived shortcoming in the skill-sets required. This is a situation we all face in our careers or chosen professions and when encountered, we dig deep into our life-long-learning bag of tricks and apply these principles to tackle the new challenge. Becoming an active and valuable part of an Integrated Design Team and working on something of paramount importance , your home, will become one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.

Lori Ryker, author of Off Grid Homes: Case Studies For Sustainable Living (2007, Gibbs Smith) says it very well:

“Homes are expressions of day-to-day experiences. They provide us with a place of refuge and memory making. From within our dwellings, our lives unfold and are invented, while personal beliefs are explored and expressed… Homes have the ability to express and embody an understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. They express who we are, who we want to be, and how we will be remembered.”

How can you take this idealistic and compelling view and distill it into a working knowledge of the principles needed to make it happen? By doing some homework…

For those who prefer to read books:

One of my favorite books, when it comes to home design, is by architect Sarah Susanka. The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (1998, The Taunton Press) is a great primer in looking at what is normative in today’s homes, the areas we actually tend to utilize and how to look at design with a new set of criteria that allows us to create more intimate and connected spaces. Take the time and do some of the exercises she recommends – they will assist in rationalizing room and space requirements and help pin-point your needs vs. wants.

Another great all-around design primer is The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics by Terrence Conran (1994, Conran Octopus Ltd. Crown Publishers Inc.). This book looks at every aspect of home, from a sense of place through to understanding layout, materials and systems. A room-by-room approach allows for a very thorough and complete understanding of concepts and applications. The photos are great (albeit a little Europe-centric) yet I find I use it regularly as a reference tool when reviewing designs in order to establish the perfect balance.

Another great reference tome is The New Moderns: Architecture and Design for Living by Jonathan Glancey and Richard Bryant (1994 in paperback, SOMA Books, Bay Books and Tapes, Inc.). This book applies a similar approach to The Essential House Book but connects with a New Modernist design genre that fits well with smaller, more efficient, homes.

Lori Ryker’s book, (2007, Gibbs Smith), utilizes a case study format to describe both the active and passive systems that make up a sustainable home. Cases are taken from around the world and the book combines both technical references and extensive interior/exterior photography to provide the reader with current projects and leading-edge technologies. The chosen homes connect well with the sites and a truly vernacular feel is evident in the architecture.

For those who prefer online tools:

Dwell Magazine is an excellent resource for both material and design links related to sustainable homes.

Architectural Record is another vast site that connects with the official magazine of the AIA (American Institute of Architects). AR’s emphasis on residential designs and materials, along with critical review of these projects, allow the reader to build a stockpile of current and relevant images relating to their own home.

For those who are a bit more technically-minded:

The Green Building Advisor website has a large amount of current and useable information available in the form of blogs, technical articles and material/product specifications.

More technical yet, but with a truly North American perspective is the Building Science Corporation. This website connects readers with books on building systems, seminars, technical white papers and building envelope section drawings that are climate specific. Their focus on energy efficiency combined with enhanced Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is timely and directly linked with the growing Green Building Movement.

These tools will help you connect at a level that will fortify the Integrated Team approach, allow you to become a more active design participant and take on a new level of ownership, well before the project becomes three-dimensional.

Enjoy the process, because it is the journey that defines who we are as individuals and feeds the creation of the environment we call home.

Sustainable Design References for the Homeowner is a post from the Outside In Design + Build blog.