Eco-Rebels: New York architects Matthew Berman, left, and Andrew Kotchen won a competition to design "zero energy" housing for New Orleans. | Photograph by Dean Kaufman
In March, Glenn and KieranTimberlake announced the LivingHomes Building System, which combines modules for kitchens, baths, and utility cores with prefab "Smart Panels" that contain the house's mechanical ducting, electrical, and plumbing systems. The units are designed with software that allows buyers to customize their homes and to expand them over time, from a modest 900-square-foot house to a 2,160-square-foot, four-bedroom place. Initial costs are $215 a square foot (excluding foundation and delivery of materials), but Glenn expects the price to drop to $155 a square foot as volume increases. All the homes meet LEED Silver standards.
The advantages -- in terms of both economics and design -- of prefab housing are the subject of an exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art this summer, "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling." Five cutting-edge factory-built houses designed by leading architects will be erected on a lot adjacent to the museum, and 58 more projects will be featured inside.
"For most people," says Barry Bergdoll, the curator of architecture at MoMA, "prefab means mobile homes and things that are upside down after the next hurricane in Florida." That's a particularly American stigma we should get over, he asserts. "Each house can be different, in a much richer way than Nike can personalize your sneakers," from a contemporary design like Glenn's to a Colonial. "Many houses in Japan are prefab," Bergdoll says, "and if you walk down the street, you'd never know it."
It's a long way from the tony precinct of MoMA to New Orleans's devastated Lower Ninth Ward, but the housing going up in the Holy Cross neighborhood there would not be out of place in the museum's show. In August 2006, Berman and Kotchen's architecture firm, Workshop/apd, won a competition sponsored by environmental activist group Global Green USA and actor Brad Pitt to design a zero-energy affordable-housing development in the most ravaged part of the city.
Workshop/apd's "GREEN.O.LA," which is currently under construction, will include five single-family houses and 18 apartments, powered by solar panels and equipped with rainwater-collection systems. The buildings are sited for maximum cross ventilation and rigged with louvers to minimize heat and capture breezes. Trellises will help keep the interiors cool.
Much of the project will be prefabricated off-site, with sustainable materials. But the feature that most animates the designers is Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard, a digital meter installed by the front door of the model home that uses sensors to provide a continuous digital readout of the energy being used. It can even translate the cost of that energy into real-world terms -- to show how the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity used, for example, translates into gallons of gas or hair-dryer hours. "So you leave the AC cranked up while you're gone, and it will show you that it cost you the equivalent of gas for two weeks," Kotchen says.
Berman and Kotchen also design custom homes for the well-heeled. Their role, they say, is to transform the way these clients think about the space they inhabit and to provide them with the most efficient platform -- which usually means smaller is better. "Good design is inherently more efficient and uses less materials," says Kotchen.
"We struggle with our own clients, to educate them," he continues. "We tell them they don't need a family room, a living room, and a media room, because all those spaces essentially perform the same."
"If we can un-name the rooms, and step back and look instead at how they're used, we can give you more opportunity in less space," Berman chimes in. "Then you can start layering on the other things -- orientation, power consumption, material use."
They've had some success. One client who came in wanting a 3,000-square-foot house now is content with a mere 1,900. But they don't always win. "We now have one very flexible couple," Kotchen says, "but we cannot get them to give up the media room."
Wilfried Wang thinks that if builders really want to help save the planet, they should stop building altogether. That's an odd thing for an architecture professor to suggest, but then Wang is unusual among his peers in his disregard for the things that normally set architects' CAD-CAM programs aquiver. "As long as we attach importance to housing starts as a statistic, we will continue to see the development of single-family freestanding houses as a positive contribution to the economy. That in itself leaves aside the issue of ecology," says Wang, who holds a chair in architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. Wang would have architects and builders focus their attention on retrofitting existing buildings to be energy efficient, rather than razing them and building anew. "If we're honest," he goes on, "we're in no way going toward a building industry capable of producing housing in a sustainable way."
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Recent Comments | 20 Total
July 7, 2008 at 12:53pm by Carel Two-Eagle
I'm ordinarily opposed to blanket statements on the premise that one size never did fit all; at best, it fit 'some'. But - Smaller has ALWAYS been better, and it always will be; particularly when we're talking about buildings. (a) There are too many humans on the planet. (b) Humans of the western majority culture behave like spoiled brats when it comes to the environment that keeps us all alive. (c) Those same humans are adamantly opposed to taking responsibility for their numbers, their activities, and their effects - and "Americans" are the worst of them all. Bigger may be better if you're hunting bear, but never when you're thinking in terms of your environmental footprint. The days of cheap fuel and building materials are gone and with them, the freedom to be irresponsible. Humans did this to us all who share this planet, so humans have to get busy and fix the mess they created. Ostentatious is 'out'; tasteful and respectful are finally coming back 'in'. I rattle my tongue for this.
July 9, 2008 at 1:57pm by Benjamin Wojcikiewicz
This was a great article and does bring up some great points. What I still find rather disturbing is that in the United States we rationalize square footage beyond our needs mentally and then want the feel-good of an energy-star appliance to make it all better. The resource costs of maintaining these huge structures is something that is sapping our natural resources and increasing our overall carbon footprints...it's not just the materials, but the operation and upkeep.
According to the NAHB/ANSI Guidelines as well as the LEED guidelines, there are point reductions for homes sized over, I believe, 2500 sq. ft. The reason is the energy consumption for conditioning the space...you can have all of the green appliances in the world, but if that structure is poorly constructed, meaning leaky and not well insulated (hello shoddy construction of the McMansion), all of the green appliances, reclaimed timber or recycled glass countertops in the world aren't going to stop you from conditioning that space and using a lot of gas/electricity.
We all need to realize that it's beyond flashy materials that a structure can be constructed of and understand that true greening comes in performance. It may not be something that you can show-off to your friends like Ice Stone, Richlite, or low-VOC finishes; but until we rethink performance as luxury, we're all going to fall into the same trap.
July 16, 2008 at 4:07pm by Jim Salmons
This is an interesting and timely article. I was reminded of a '3R' (reduce, reuse, recycle) project of some friends of ours at an eco-village in western North Carolina. They built a multi-purpose B&B, conference center and extended family home structure using waste shipping pallets that were traditional burned rather than reused or recycled!
Check out 'Lay Your Pallet Down, Don't Burn It!' at the Sohodojo web site.
July 17, 2008 at 7:54am by Catherine Li
a eco-friendly,rewable constrction and decro materials--bamboo pole
Bamboo is a natural grass family plant, but it has hardwood texture and tapers from base to tip, Bamboo has fantastic merchanical properties, it shows average hardness of 1642kg/cm2, Density--720kg/m3 , tensile strength of 4340kg/cm2, bamboo is in its size, lightness and strength an extreme product of nature. It is stable and because of its cavities an extreme light and elastic decoration and building material. The reinforcement by diaphragms and its physical conditions cause its enormous superiority compared to other wood materials. It also was widely use for furniture, decoration materials as well.
Useful link http://www.chinabamboogarden.com
November 2, 2008 at 3:22am by Yeves Perez
I happen to deeply agree with the wisdom of Tom Friedman (that we cannot consume of way out of this mess and “Have you ever been to a revolution where nobody gets hurt?”). The fact is that the current economic conditions will cause a lot of companies to close their doors (websites too), and will die off altogether due to lack of understanding the competitive landscape. Those that will fight to stay alive will need to figure out — What’s Next?
I believe that the New Green Economy will include the Rise of Green Real Estate Markets paired with the continued success of Cleantech, Clean Energy Markets, and large scale shifts toward Clean Transportation, and the Greening of the IT Industries (plus a fourth quarter of record investment!!), which will lead to a boom in “American Made” Green Collar Jobs and the creation of new wealth. The trick is: “who will get it right??” Execution makes all the difference for most of these opportunities and green investors need to pay more attention to the items that management claim they can achieve.
I'd like to ask Mr. Mazria, Mr. Matthew Berman,and Andrew Kotchen if they had ever heard of the Eco Investment Club before? And if he would like to join us! The Club has hosted several high impact, educational meetings that cover these “newly hot topics” such as: “The Economic State of Green Building” with Guest Speaker Harvey Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Analytics, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives for McGraw-Hill Construction and Hosted by Citi Smith Barney’s Bruce Kahn, and the First Annual “Green Leaders Week”, which was a week-long buffet of events for investors, who were interested in getting face-to-face time with the Green Business Leaders of Southern California. The events of this highly successful week were designed to give Accredited and Institutional Investors, who were interested in getting a first-hand look inside the minds of Cleantech leaders, the opportunity to witness operations of some of the fastest growing companies by attending a series of “open houses”, starting with Envirepel Energy, Inc., a clean energy (BioMass) company in Vista, CA.
And as a special surprise: Ask Oren Jaffe, Co-Founder of EcoTuesday.com, your toughest questions on Nov 5th, 2008, as the Eco Investment Club attempts to provide direction and positive outlook for green investors and business leaders seeking answers before creating more Green Collar Jobs! The event is called, “What’s Next For The Green Economy??” Submit your questions at ecoinvestors@gmail.com and join the webinar at:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/124526391 (Click here to register or learn more)
February 15, 2009 at 7:25pm by Tim Tessman
Quite an interesting article. Being GREEN, to me, doesn't mean diminishing a lifestyle so much as being smarter... doesn't have to cost a fortune either. It can pay for itself.
I am very interested in SIP's - Structural Insulated Panels, for greatly reducing energy use. Also LED lighting seems to be a quantum leap ahead of incandescent and CFL's. Heat pumps for heating and cooling.
Regarding SIP's, I would suggest you take time to look at LEEP Inc's metal-skinned SIP.
The 4" panel has an R25 value and is rated Category 5 for hurricanes.
Working on getting Certified GREEN in California.
> http://www.leepinc.com/product/specifications/
Good Luck.
March 11, 2009 at 11:19am by Neil Palmer
This is the way forward, I agree that green appliances only get you so far. We need to think further down the line than efficient cookers
May 8, 2009 at 3:57pm by Sam Small
Hey, how about another revolutionary new home construction method that's greener than anything yet? A house built almost entirely out of construction-grade structural bamboo! Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet. Bamboo has been used for home construction since man moved out of caves only now is it available as graded and rated Code Certified construction material. Hunter Lovins talks about it in this interview on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ-Cz32_x6Efeature=channel_page
And you can see many of the over 150 code-certified, prefabricated homes they've built at the Bamboo Living web site: http://www.bambooliving.com