Small Lux Eco Home

The price seems unbelievable, but still a very "cool" sustainable house:

This is the Green Cubed house, which was designed by Nelse Design + Build. Located on an infill lot in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, the 5-star home was recently the superstar of a Green Built home tour. And for those in the area, this modern, single-family home is listed for sale for $900,00, which includes four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms in a 2,667 square-foot package. Some of its many green features include the following:

• Vegetated roof system;
• Cistern for rainwater collection;
• Irrigation free landscaping and no impervious ground surfaces;
• High efficiency boiler paired with radiant floor system;
• Energy Star kitchen and laundry appliances;
• Carpetless design for indoor air quality;
• Durable siding and recycled content roof product;
• Reused salvaged cabinetry and renewable bamboo flooring; and
• Prewired roof for future solar power.

In addition, 90% of construction waste was diverted from the waste stream, and the home was designed to be 30% more efficient than international energy code. In testing, Green Cubed received a HERS rating of 56.

Photo credits: Paul Clark.

Source: Jetson Green

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Urban Green Projects

This whole thing started when Urban Re:Vision teamed up with the City of Dallas to create a sustainable city block. The location was announced last December, and thereafter, teams from all across the world participated in a competition to design the greenest city block in the country. Now, three winners have been announced (see below), and of these three, one will be chosen for construction. Groundbreaking is set for Fall 2010.

We thought it'd be interesting to try to anticipate the ultimate winner with a short poll. Read below and vote for the best sustainable design:

Entangled Bank
by Little (Charlotte, NC)

Entangled Bank is a mixed-use plan with residential and retail aspects. It was designed to include a sky pasture to sustain livestock. The building has community garden areas and is powered by vertical axis wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Glass ponds capture rainwater and provide irrigation for the extensive vertical farm and green roof system. Entangled Bank will have 500 residential units, an Organic Farming Institute, and a Slow Food Restaurant.

Greenways Xero Energy
by David Baker + Partners and Fletcher Studio (San Francisco, CA)

Greenways Xero Energy takes its shape from an abstract, beached naval ship in order to capture solar exposure and rainwater. The design features community gardens, vertical farming, solar thermal energy, and photovoltaics. Shading on the south side of the structure reduces cooling loads and geothermal tubes negotiate temperature swings. Dallasites may notice that this design, particularly with the red touches and box cutouts, plays off the design of One Arts Plaza and the Arts District, which anchors the northeast corner of Dallas CBD.

Forwarding Dallas
by Atelier Data and MOOV (Lisbon, Portugal)

Forwarding Dallas gets its inspiration from hills, possibly even the rolling landscape of Texas Hill Country, to create an undulated fabric of buildings with green roofs covered in native vegetation. The hills harvest natural elements, including the sun and wind, through solar thermal, photovoltaic’s, horizontal axis wind turbines, and passive solar louvers. Self-sustaining Forwarding Dallas will accommodate 854 residents and be prefabricated with local materials and straw bales.

Source: Jetson Green

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Lets Grow Forests on top of our buildings

Building Design and Construction - On line: posted this article. Imagine what we could grow in Johannesburg!

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has announced that the city of Toronto has passed a new

Green roof by-law with overwhelming support yesterday. The green roof by-law consists of a green roof construction standard and a mandatory requirement for green roofs on all classes of new buildings. The by-law requires up to 50% green roof coverage on multi-unit residential dwellings over six stories, schools, non-profit housing, and commercial and industrial buildings. Larger residential projects require greater green roof coverage, ranging anywhere from 20-50% of the roof area.

"The city of Toronto's leadership on all things green took another major step by making it obligatory to have green roofs for all types of new buildings," said Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, the primary champion of the new by-law. "This bylaw is a major part of the solution to climate change, the creation of green jobs, and it represents a whole new mindset on how our cities approach the 20% or so of surface area that are roofs."  

"Toronto's by-law provides a new opportunity to strengthen the emerging practice of integrated green building design," said Steven W. Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which supported the by-law against pressure from developers opposed to the policy. "The by-law breaks new ground on how to structure a mandatory green roof requirement and the construction standard also contains important best practices that may prove to be a model for other cities."

Chicago remains the city with the largest number of green roofs installed, according to GHRC's Annual Green Roof Industry Survey released last week. The mandatory by-law in Toronto may change that, resulting in approximately 50 to 75 new projects annually.

Toronto already requires green roofs on city-owned properties, has established a financial incentive of up to $5 per square foot for existing buildings, and is currently building a publicly accessible green roof on its city hall. The project will be unveiled at CitiesAlive!, the first international green roof congress to be held October 19-22, 2009 with a focus on addressing climate change. See www.citiesalive.org for details.

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Green Building Rebates

We at Greencon feel this is the lead (exscuse the pun) local governement should be making to get Green Building Built:

Officials in Portland, Ore. have proposed a green building incentive program that would be the first of its kind in the United States. Under the program, new commercial buildings, 20,000 square feet or larger, that meet Oregons state building code would be assessed a fee by the city of up to $3.46 per square foot. The fee would be waived for buildings that achieve the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Those that achieve LEED Gold, LEED Platinum or the Living Building Challenge, would receive rebates of $1.73-$ 17.30 per square foot depending on certification level.

Based on the same requirements, multifamily residential properties, 5,000 square feet or larger, would also be eligible for rebates of $0.51-$5.15 per square foot. Multifamily projects, 50,000 square feet or larger, that receive city funding must meet LEED Silver standards.

For new single-family residential construction, the proposed program sets performance targets for the percentage of homes certified through either LEED for Homes or Earth Advantage. These targets increase from 20 percent in 2009 to 40 percent in 2011. If the targets aren't met at any point, the city of Portland will set up a feebate structure similar to that used for commercial buildings.

Source: Building design and Construction - On Line 

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GreenBuilding Council of South Africa Certified

Green Building Council Certified (GBCSA) member of staff Marc Desfontaines (seen here hiking with his children in the Transkei), is passionate about helping customers develop in a manner that greatly reduces their impact on the Planet. Marc co-ordinates with architects, developers, policy planners and property owners to give them the best solution to reducing their impact on the planet. Furthermore design and development teams looking for the prestigious Greenstar ratings use Marc and his team to help them develop in a manner that follows sustainable principles and altogether results in healthier buildings being made or refurbished in our Urban environment. 

Contact him here.

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