GreenBuildIndiana

Las Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World

Image Credit:  Las Gaviotas.  This tiny hydroelectric turbine is one of four technologies that keeps Las Gaviotas off the grid. It generates 30 kilowatts off a 1-meter drop in a low-fall dam.  Las Gaviotas was a feature in yesterday's "Living on Earth" broadcast on NPR. Founded by Colombian Paolo Lugari, Las Gaviotas has out-innovated some of the world's biggest corporations in its effort to create a sustainable society:

"Built from scratch in a treeless corner of [Colombia], this community of scientists, tinkerers, and refugees - now numbering more than 200 - has created a verdant rainforest where once there was nothing but scrub grass. It has also devised and deployed dozens of inventions with a frequency and success rate that puts some of America's most storied technology companies to shame.

"Its products include a hydroelectric microturbine that generates 30 kilowatts and thousands of RPMs from a mere 1-meter drop in a low-fall dam; a system of solar panels, spherical boilers, and tanks that can provide hot water for housing projects as large as 30,000 units; and a remote-controlled zeppelin that uses video cameras to spot forest fires."  CNN Money

Alan Weisman wrote a book on Las Gaviotas, and he has recently updated it and re-issued it in a new edition. In addition to advancing renewable energy technologies and successfully creating a verdant forest out of nothing, Las Gaviotas has some lessons on what is most appropriate technology for a post-carbon world, and what really makes human beings happy.   Says one of the community's leaders: "We believe austerity is a better path to happiness and to man's comfort. In Colombia's oil camps, what have they gotten? Prostitution and alcoholism, because salaries are too high. Then the oil is gone. What's left is misery." 

Living Designs Group's Green Condo Development in Taos, NM

Living Designs Group suggests once again that people who live in New Mexico just know how to design things more beautifully.  Of course, the weather helps. This condo development, Suenos de la Loma, is located in the historic district of Taos, New Mexico and its units are carefully sited to receive maximum solar gain and daylighting. The use of historic adobe walls helps the structures blend with the historic architecture of the area.   Adobe is also very effective as a passive solar design element, as it absorbs heat through the day, in effect sheltering interior spaces from the heat of the sun, and slowly gives off heat during the cold desert night.  This condo development is within walking distance of Taos Plaza.

Mixed-Use, Affordable, Sustainable Housing in Calgary, CA

The latest issue of Eco-Structure magazine features Vento Residences, designed by Busby Perkins + Will.  Calgary, Alberta demolished its general hospital and decided to create a green, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented urban community where the hospital used to be.  The community is certified LEED Platinum, and the homes are performing 44% better than Canada's Model National Energy Code.  Green features include:

• increased density in the inner city and surrounding the public transut
• pedestrian oriented design
• live-work units
• solar orientation
  
• low maintenance vegetation
• construction waste management plans
• water efficient irrigation
• indoor/outdoor bicycle parking
• low volume toilets and shower heads

Affordable units are included in the mix, as are small, local businesses on ground level Wouldn't it be great if Chicago decided to initiate a development like this out of the hulk that is Cook County Hospital?

Solar Verde Plans Zero Energy Homes in Chicago

Solar Verde, a development planned for South Chicago, IL will build Zero Energy Homes that will reduce energy costs for homeowners by 60-100%.  The partners in this enterprise include PureEnergy Alternatives, a company in Northbrook, Illinois.   Looking at the renderings, it is clear that the project plans to use thin-film technology in the form of solar roof shingles:

"These shingles contain solar cells; each cell will produce electric power when exposed to sunlight. These cells are manufactured in a high-tech process similar to that which is used to make computer chips. Solar shingles have no moving parts, are very reliable, and have a long life." (from the website)

The combination of solar roof shingles and super-insulated walls will create homes that are not energy consumers but energy generators.

Development in Sebastopol, CA Uses Gray Water System

Florence Lofts are designed for people who work from home and want to be able to walk to all the city's amenities. The lofts are beautiful and have been rated LEED Gold for their use  of environmentally friendly materials and their solar power system.  But what really interested me (because my mind is always in the gutter?) was the fact that this is the first gray water recycling system to be approved for use in Sonoma County.   As reported in Inhabitat:

"The impressive gray water recycling system ... [uses] recycled water from bathing, washing and laundry to provide 100% of the water needed for landscape irrigation. Given water shortages in Northern California, the estimated savings of up to 150,000 gallons of water per year go along way to conservation. In addition, rainfall and storm water brought on-site are cleansed naturally through a bioremediation system, reducing the pollutants and toxins that these two sources bring to streams and rivers.....[All] paved surfaces throughout the project are permeable, recharging the natural water table in the area."

Chapel Hill Development Employs Cradle-to-Cradle Principles

There is a new development planned for Chapel Hill, NC that fulfills our passion for green building and our love of the college town. It is also gratifying to see the development arise in town, where it will rejuvenate an area that needs it.  (At least that's what I read between the lines of the copy on their website.)   Note to developers who want their projects to be approved by town planning boards:  the local community loves this development.  The company vision of Greenbridge Developments is an inspiration, but should be a requirement for anyone planning to build dwellings for human beings:

"Greenbridge Developments aims to develop a new kind of community in existing neighborhoods that promotes human and ecological health. A community that restores the air, water, and soil on which life depends, and contributes to the quality, diversity, vitality, and prosperity of its neighbors. An essential component to this will be to embrace new construction methods, innovative renewable building materials, and forward-thinking renewable energy strategies capable of restoring our relationship to the planet."

Ecological Home Magazine Features Green Communities

The fall issue of Ecological Home Ideas has a great feature on Green Communities, including Atlantic Station in Atlanta which clusters affordable homes around businesses in downtown Atlanta close to dining, shopping and parks.  Hope it helps to reduce Atlanta's hideous traffic problems.  Rhapsody Cove near Kankakee promises prairie restoration and wetlands protection, but it's still way the heck out of town forcing people to drive just to buy groceries.  Sanctuary Place in Chicago, designed by Farr Associates, is an affordable housing complex for formerly homeless women that uses passive solar design and insulated concrete forms to keep the building snug even in cold Chicago winters.  "ICFs are hollow blocks, usually made of foam, stacked into walls that are then reinforced with steel rebar and filled with concrete.  The result is a highly durable, energy efficient wall..."  Tribeca Green in NYC also used concrete walls to help win LEED Silver status.

Tilting at Windows

The innovative architectural firm Studio Gang has designed  Windermere West , a 26-story condo building planned for the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, which will reduce summer peak energy use dramatically by tilting windows away from the sun.  The August online issue of Wired has a nice picture.   

   Neighborhood community meetings have expressed concern about the height of the building, but let's hope that however tall the building is, the design stays intact.

"Green" McMansion vs. Brownfield Development

Friday's New Homes section in the Chicago Tribune showed how the term "green" has been completely co-opted; builder Robert Lord is creating a six bedroom, six bath, 11,000 square foot "green" home with multiple garage spaces, which will sell for $3.9 million.    Just let that sink in for a moment.   Even the Real Estate reporter was a little skeptical, asking:  "But isn't the essence of going green making less of a footprint on the Earth?"    As he ticked off the list of "green features"  in this St. Charles, IL home, the  builder pointed out that the buyer would save "as much as $7,000 annually" using his geothermal heating system.  Well, yes, it's easy to 'save' money on energy when you are spending a king's ransom on it in the first place....After nearly choking on my breakfast at the sheer obscenity of building a house like this in the middle of valuable farmland, I was heartened by another story on the same page.

Developer Gerald Snowden is reclaiming a former junkyard in downtown Traverse City, MI and turning it into a mixed-use building with shops, offices, and residences.

"Hans Voss, executive director of the Michigan Land Use Institute, praised the idea of reusing an inner-city location instead of gobbling up another cherry orchard on the outskirts of town.  'Putting up a green building where everyone drives 20 miles back and forth is not nearly as sustainable as putting it downtown where we can walk and not burn fuel to do our daily activities,' Voss said."

The  builder is developing the site to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council.  Way to go, dude.

 

Garden Atriums: Green Or Not?

The Garden Atriums at Poquoson, VA utilize one of my all-time favorite house designs: an interior garden.  However, since the house is not in sunny Spain, the garden must have a glass roof....Perhaps it's because I spent too much time staying at Hyatt Hotels, but the word "atrium" has always given me the creeps.  Nevertheless, there is a genuine attempt to conserve with features such as:

• Passive solar design
• PV solar to generate electricity
• "Special coated glass" over the atrium
• Rainwater harvesting to supply virtually all water needs

(No energy performance information is provided.) Still, it sure beats the classic American suburban house planted in the middle of a grass lawn.....