The other day, Andrew Stone took me through this newly constructed abode located on an infill lot in Salt Lake City. The contemporary home, currently listed for $685,000, was designed by A.K. Smith Architects and comes with some slick green technology. The entire home is wired up with a Control4 Home Automation System -- accessible on an iPhone -- and connected to the fireplace, thermostat, and lighting.
Modcell, a company in the UK that makes prefabricated panels from staw and hemp, this year completed a two-story straw bale home on the campus of the University of Bath. The home, referred to as Balehaus@Bath, was designed by White Design. Over a year, the Balehaus will be monitored in thirty-second increments with 12 sensors inside and 66 sensor in the walls, measuring such things as thermal performance, acoustics, air tightness, and relative humidity.
About a year and a half ago, we mentioned a project designed by seed architecture studio called the SIPs House in Portland. Built by Kaya General Contractors, the home is now complete. Since it hasn't sold yet due to market conditions, the developing partner is going to move in.
The all-electric home is one of the first homes in Portland to be built with SIPs and features a number of green features:
This is the Ross Street House in Madison, Wisconsin. It's located just a mile from the University of Wisconsin campus and the first LEED Platinum home in the entire state! I first noticed the home in an article on Cadalyst, where author Kenneth Wong discussed the use of ArchiCad software to model the home and neighboring properties for context. Owner Carol Richard, partner in the Atlanta firm of Richard Wittschiebe Hand, also used modeling to optimize the amount of natural light brought into the home.
This is the Idea House by Broadway Malyan for Sime Darby Property, one of the largest property developers in Malaysia. The home was designed as an attempt to become the first carbon zero residence in South East Asia. The home would be prefabricated in modules to save on labor costs, speed up the construction process, and make deconstruction of the home easy at the end of its useful life. Some other green aspects of the home design include:
Hive Modular, a Minneapolis-based company that sells modular, contemporary homes, recently sent us photos of this X-Line prefab in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota. The X-Line 003 features an exterior of fiber cement, steel, and locally harvested cedar, while the interior features stylish modern elements. Pay particular attention to the translucent polycarbonate walls by Polygal, the red IKEA kitchen, and the custom tables from Eastvold Custom Woodworks.
We’ve mentioned Ideabox several times over the years, and their new offering, the Fortino, has to be one my favorites. The Fortino was on display at the Seattle Home Show 2, although, unfortunately, there was a huge pole at the show obstructing photos. You’ll have to imagine the Fortino in a well-manicured, xeriscaped setting on the lot of your choosing. Something like 30,000 people saw the Fortino in Seattle, and Jim Russell, founder of Ideabox, tells me the response was incredible.
Since we first mentioned Stillwater Dwellings in March, the new company has been extremely busy. Not only have they lined up plans to build green prefabs in Portland (Or.), Santa Barbara (Ca.), and Healdsburg (Ca.), but they've recently completed their first prefab home in Bend, Oregon. The company was kind enough to send us a few photos of the inside and outside, and the modern home is just stunning.
Several months ago, we mentioned news that Studio Daniel Libeskind designed a modern prefab with the prototype of the prefab under construction in Datteln, Germany. That home, more precisely a visitor center with conference rooms for the time being, was celebrated in an inauguration ceremony on September 29, 2009. The Villa, a first in the Libeskind Signature Series of homes, is super efficient and uses minimal energy, despite its size.
By looking at these pictures, you probably can’t tell that an old, two-story, under-performing industrial building was converted into a beautiful modern suite of office spaces. The Koll Company hired LPA Inc. to transform the old facility and transform they did! (You can see a before photo below.) The LEED Silver building, now referred to as the Koll Airport Professional Center for its location near John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, is a fine example of adaptive reuse with new green elements:
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