The Tacoma Housing Authority (THA), located just south of Seattle, is pursuing its first modular housing project in the hopes of bringing affordable and sustainable homes to an economically diverse community. THA will be constructing Hillsdale Heights, a 110-unit housing community, on the former Hillsdale Lumber sawmill site. The community will include 60 low-income rental units, 50 affordable for-sale townhomes, a small community center, trails and green space.
So, after a few weeks off, I have returned from the land of Fire and Ice to share with you just a bit more on what makes Iceland a truly inspiring country. Aside from the obvious natural beauty, Iceland is making great strides to becoming the world’s leader in clean energy technology and production. While walking down the streets of Reykjavik, I ran into a couple of city workers that are paving the way for a new electric car charging station.
According to the New York Times, at a Reykjavik conference this week, Driving Sustainability ‘08, Iceland announced plans to team up with Mitsubishi Motors to supply the country with a fleet of tiny i-MiEVelectric cars (which have a range per charge of about 100 miles with lithium-ion batteries). Scheduled to go on sale in Japan in the summer of 2009, Iceland is likely to be the first European country to have i-MiEVs.
This decision is in the wake of a hydrogen-based fuel conversation that has been loosing momentum since it began. According to Iceland’s foreign minister, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gisladóttir, “We see Iceland as the world’s laboratory for a decarbonized future,” She was talking about the country’s plan, announced in 1998, to become to the world’s first hydrogen-based energy economy.
GREENFAB WILL BE TAKING A SHORT BREAK as I travel to Iceland for a two week photography trip with my dad. This trip has been a dream of mine so when I RETURN THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15th I will be anxious to share with you all that I have learned from the land that produces 70% of the nation’s primary energy from renewable sources.
Iceland is an island of thundering waterfalls, barren highlands, smoldering volcanoes, gushing geysers, bubbling mudpots, soothing thermal pools, the largest icecap outside the poles and not to mention the coolest turf houses in the world.
Here are a few articles that help explain the major role Iceland will play in our global future as we try to understand and use energy responsibly and efficiently.
GreenFab had previously shown the progress leading up to the opening of MoMA’s “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling” but we have yet to share some of the opinions of those that seem to be less impressed with MoMA’s efforts to explain the history behind prefabricated dwellings and the five international architects’ take on “the future”.
The Washington Post recently published an article titled “Walls That Talk, and Repeat Themselves” that raises some interesting points about the story MoMA is telling about prefabricated design and construction. Here are a few highlights:
The team that brought us BedZED back in 2002 has released yet another zero carbon housing product called ruralZED earlier this year at EcoBuild in Earls Court, London. The ZEDfactory installed their new affordable, zero carbon home in only 3 days. ruralZED is a high quality housing system combining micro-generation and small biomass technologies that help achieve a Level 6 in England’s Code for Sustainable Homes. What makes this product unique is that the ZEDfactory has built into their system the ability to upgrade from a Code 3 to a Code 6 for 70% of all UK building sites.
ruralZED is made of a hybrid laminated timber frame flexible enough for a variety of master plan options at fixed prefabricated kit prices with volume discounts. Minimizing its demand on resources, ruralZED catches sunlight, wind, fresh air and rain using tried and tested energy systems.
Garrett and Dustin Moon of Portland, Oregon (although they are really from my home state of Washington) are building what promises to be one of the first Living Buildings in the country. GreenFab highlighted their project, The Commons, back in April to share with you what very few people are attempting to do in this country when LEED is not enough.
The Commons is “designed to reach beyond today’s highest green building standards and become the first U.S. home to meet the Living Building Challenge. The Commons will generate all its own energy without fossil fuels, reclaim all its water, be free of unhealthy materials and be a place of beauty and community.”
Hot off the press, Garrett has just published a paper, Sustainable Architecture: an overview of equitable and efficient spaces that helps to identify and explain sustainable design processes and applications. The document is half a survey of sustainability and its applications and half a case study of their project, The Commons. This is a MUST READ!
Although it was completed a year ago, Sean Godsell’s Glenburn House is still worth revisiting. Nestled within the rolling hillsides approximately 1.5 hours drive north east of Melbourne, Australia, the Glenburn House is a beacon of sustainable design. The building skin includes solar collectors for generating electricity and hot water. Other passive features include double glazing, rainwater harvesting and digital power management.
The house is a long, linear gesture carved into an undulating landscape. This linear plan is enhanced by the architects’ barcode motif. Within the home, a series of organized spaces results in a coded arrangement that is unique to the client. Somewhat of a “tectonic thumbprint” for living.
Dockside Green is a 15-acre master-planned waterfront community in Victoria B.C. consisting of three neighborhoods designed to create a sense of belonging and true environmental sustainability. Targeted for LEED Platinum, Dockside Green’s principles of New Urbanism, smart growth, green building and sustainable community design are the driving forces behind this development project.
Synergy, designed by Busby Perkins+Will, is the first phase of the overall Dockside Green development to be completed and includes 95 homes in two condo buildings, townhomes and commercial space. Recently, Synergy achieved 63 points out of a possible 70 for a LEED Platinum certification. To reach this highest LEED rating to-date, Synergy incorporated a number of innovative sustainable systems. Read on to learn more.
Located on a brown-field site on Bermondsey Street in London, Carmarthen Place SE1 incorporates sustainable building practices, historic vernacular and contextual sympathy into a prefabricated, timber clad urban infill project. Designed by architect Emma Doherty with AiR, the project consists of two 2-bedroom homes and an artist’s studio.
An innovative solid wood panel system was chosen for its total cassette system panels complete with insulation, breather membranes, batons, cladding and pre-fitted fenestration and doors. The large panels were craned, erected and bolted together on-site in just 12 days. The laminated solid wood panels are 100mm thick and form the breathable structural skeleton of the building as well as the finished interior surface. Internal staircases were made on-site using English Oak and are bathed in light piercing through double height voids covered in glass. Deep set windows and boxed protrusions give framed views on the top two floors while high-level windows on the ground floor create a sense of privacy. Complete with a sedum green roof, Carmarthen Place SE1 is the first project in the UK to be developed using Riko’s sustainable system.
“Visionary architect Dr. David Fisher is the creator of the revolutionary Dynamic Tower, the world’s first building in motion. The Dynamic Tower heralds a new era of architecture: Buildings in motion will challenge traditional architecture, becoming the symbol of a new philosophy that will change the look of our cities and the concept of living.
The Dynamic Tower offers infinite design possibilities, as each floor rotates independently at different speeds, resulting in a unique and ever evolving shape that introduces a fourth dimension to architecture, Time.
The Dynamic Tower is environmentally friendly, with the ability to generate electricity for itself as well as other buildings nearby making it the first building designed to be self-powered, it achieves this feat with wind turbines fitted between each rotating floor. An 80-story building will have up to 79 wind turbines, making it a true green power plant.
The Dynamic Tower is also the first skyscraper to be built entirely from prefabricated parts that are custom made in a workshop, resulting of fast construction and of substantial cost savings . this approach known as the Fisher Method, also requires far less workers on construction site while each floor of the building can be completed in only seven days, units can also be customized according to the owners needs and styles.”
Danish architects Tegnestuen Vandkunsten have developed a low-cost modular housing prototype that was the product of a 2004 competition to create affordable units without sacrificing architectural quality. This prototype will help their Danish client launch the next 124 courtyard homes. There are four different courtyard housing types, derived from 5.2×5.2 meter modules, gathered around a communal space. Each kitchen window opens out onto these intimate landscapes. The facades of each building are carbonized (baked or heat-treated) wood and aluminum.
The concept is called ”bedre billigere boliger (bbb)” and literally translates to mean “better cheaper housing”. Creating an affordable project with high architectural detailing was a challenge. One design area the client chose to spend money on was the windows. By putting more money in all the windows, the overall quality of the project could be raised in one single move.
Sited on a hillside overlooking Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Mountains near Seattle, the Zero Energy Idea House minimizes energy usage while maximizing comfort and style. At only 1,700 square-feet, this two bedroom home combines solar power with the most efficient building products and appliances that result in a total energy bill of less than $500 per year. Additional features include: SIPs (structural insulated panels), rainwater collection, salvaged wood flooring, efficient ventilation, green roof and a “living wall” used for soil retention.
For this project, the term “zero energy” does not actually mean that the house uses no energy. The home actually combines on-site power generation with other efficiency measures to meet its own energy requirements. So, the solar panels will meet electrical needs and heat hot water but the hydronic in-floor radiant heating system will be gas-powered.
And the Australian Institute of Architects Small Project award goes to: Casey Brown’s Permanent Camping. Permanent Camping is a small 3×3x6m prefab tower situated in Australia’s outback. The sides are made of corrugated copper to protect against brush fires and fold up and down for shade and security. Amenities include a kitchen, sleeping loft, detached copper-clad outhouse and a water collection tank.
Verana Hotels has just expanded their Yelapa, Mexico hotel with 5 units of prefabricated modern dwellings perched high on a cliff. Each V-House, designed by Heinz Legler, is 16′x16′ with open sides to maintain views and air flow. This project was an experiment of sorts and is intended to house guests and seasonal hotel staff. Standing 18′ apart, the V-houses have basically no environmental impact or foot print and can be built on any surface condition.
Each house is self sufficient with solar integration, composting toilets and a grey water system that helps irrigate the surrounding garden. Prefabricated in Puerto Vallarta, the homes were delivered by boat and carried up the hill using no machinery or heavy duty equipment. The structures emerge from a small concrete foundation and are made out of steel, plywood and red corrugated iron.
Earlier this year, Envisioning Gateway-an international competition for the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York/New Jersey-announced its winning entry for an innovative, visionary and compelling proposal celebrating the unique potential of the park as both a regional resource and a national environmental treasure.
Ashley Kelly and Rikako Wakabayashi’s winning entry, Mapping the Ecotone, took on the dual task of developing a master plan to unify the separate units of the Gateway National Recreation Area and to design a new park at Floyd Bennet Field in Jamaica Bay. Their goal was to “create a highly visible, experiential public infrastructure that responds to the shifting ecosystem of Jamaica Bay and defines a new vision of the relationship between nature and people.”
The design actually encourages development and human interaction along coastal edges where recently, people have been fleeing from disastrous climate change phenomenon. The result is an “urban park that creates a microcosm of shifting habitats, program and landforms.”
