• $50 Million for Drywall? Serious Materials is a company that is best known for sound attenuation construction products. Recently they announced development of a new type of drywall that will take 90% less energy to produce resulting in a 98% reduction in greenhouse gases. EcoRock, as it is called, has impressed investors, raising $50M thus far.
• Nine Creative Staircases This article features some really inspiring staircase designs for what is normally a fairly boring subject.
• New Spin on Low E Glazing Glass isn’t the best product for energy efficiency by itself – something called emissivity. To increase the efficiency, which means decreasing emissivity (hence “Low-E”), special materials are applied to glass. Some glazing products are better for keeping heat inside the building in colder climates while other products reflect sunlight keeping the inside cooler in warmer climates. But what about temperate climates with both hot summers and cold winters? Dr. Heinz Kunert of KSD Fenster in Germany created a pivoting glazing panel with one type of each coating on either side. So during the winter, rotate the window with the more insulating side on the interior, and during the summer, rotate the window to face the reflective coating to the outside.
• The Big Dig House We covered the topic of The Big Dig before – a Boston area public works project that has ended in disaster. We re-visit the subject to highlight what some enterprising folks at Single Speed Design have done with some of the leftovers. They removed some 300 tons of material from the project and recycled it to make a very nice and modern home.

Stephen Kanner, a principal of Kanner Architects in Los Angeles, and his friend Joe Gaddo, an architect based in Ghana, are helping to develop a cement additive that could decrease construction costs there by a one third—no small accomplishment in a country where concrete is the preferred building material and yet few people are able to afford it.

The new additive is called PozzoGhana, a wordplay on an Italian ash-based additive called pozzolana. PozzoGhana is made of a mixture of palm kernels, which come from the fruit of palm trees that grow abundantly in Ghana, as well as lime and local clays. It will be used as a supplement to help reduce the use of imported cement, whose cost is rising. The simple process of producing PozzoGhana, the use of cheap local materials, and the less expensive local labor make it a cheaper option. “It could make a difference in so many construction projects,” Kanner says, “especially if we can help with the low-income housing market.”

Link to Article

Apple Inc. co-founder and legendary hacker Steve Wozniak [book review] recently found a new passion in energy-efficient housing. Last month he told PC World magazine, “I have a long dream to build my own house in a very energy-efficient approach. That’s going to be very soon. It uses the right kind of wood that serves as a heater and as an air conditioner, combined with some other techniques in how the wood is assembled to operate energy life pressure. You don’t have to add energy into a house after you build it. I love that concept. It’s like the way I used to make computers. I want to build it myself. That’s a project that could be finished this summer, next summer, but not too far from now.” Here at ECN we thought you’d like to know more, so we interviewed Woz by email. Here is a transcript of our questions and his answers. His preface: “I’m too busy to do this [interview] now, but I’ll do it anyway. I have to say that I’m not a green expert but did encounter some technologies that were very right for a home.”

Link to Article

This annual fundraiser event will be held at the organization’s Home Improvement Outlet in Corona at 1655 W. 6th Street #109, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In this “Ultimate Treasure Hunt for Do-It-Yourselfers,” Southland residents can look forward to an additional 50 percent off the entire stock of building materials and home improvement items, which everyday are already at 50 to 80 percent below retail prices. One hundred percent of the proceeds earned from the sale will fuel Materials Matter’s comprehensive programs, including the Community Chest program, which grants nonprofit organizations access to free or heavily discounted building materials for builds and other projects.

“Consumers can enjoy great savings during our sale for their own projects, and their purchases will ultimately contribute to many worthy causes across Southern California,” said Jason McKinstry, president of Materials Matter. “This is an event that the whole community can enjoy and be proud to participate in.”

Last year’s sale brought shoppers from as far north as Ventura and down to San Diego County. These customers know to expect great deals on a wide variety of home improvement items, most of them brand new and all of them in excellent condition. Much of the Home Improvement Outlet’s stock is donated from builders and home improvement retail stores looking to reduce surplus inventory.

To spark interest in the sale and encourage shoppers to take a “sneak peek” to check out the amazing deals offered, prize giveaway opportunities will be available the previous Monday through Friday, July 9-13. Shoppers can enter a daily drawing to win tool kits and vie for “golden tickets” for an extra 10 percent off on the day of the sale, among other prizes.

Additionally, for the week preceding the sale and during the event on July 14, kids who accompany their parents can participate in their own treasure hunt through the store, claim their own pirate’s treasure from a chest of toys, and participate in other pirate-inspired crafts and activities.

“We want this to be an enjoyable experience for the whole family,” said Alison Riback, vice president of Materials Matter. “Adults can take advantage of our great deals and on their own home improvement treasures, while their kids can have fun at the same time.”

Materials Matter, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, also runs In Kind Donation Management services and a Deconstruction and Recycling program, which benefit both the nonprofit and business communities. As tons of building materials are saved from landfills each year through the operation of these programs, even the environment benefits from Materials Matter’s programs.

Link to Press Release

The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future.
The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose 60% less heat than a normal home.

It also features solar panels, a biomass boiler and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.

The design, unveiled at the Offsite 2007 exhibition in Watford, meets rules to be applied in 2016 that aim to make UK homes more energy-efficient.

The Kingspan Off-Site’s Lighthouse design is the first to achieve level six of the Code for Sustainable Homes – which means the house is carbon neutral.

Link to Article

One of the biggest targets by environmentalists is the construction industry as the amount of lumber used by that segment is seemingly unending. Ironically, the Enertia home relies upon solid wood from real trees. The key to the green aspect of the design is the use of yellow pine which is quickly and easily grown, making it a sustainable and renewable resource.

In the Enertia® Building System, solid Energy-Engineered(tm) wood walls replace siding, framing, insulation, and paneling. An air flow and access channel, or Envelope, runs around the building, just inside the walls – creating a miniature biosphere. Here solar heated air circulates, pumping and boosting geothermal energy from beneath the house, storing it in the massive wood walls. Thermal inertia causes the house to “float” between the cycles of night and day, and even between the seasons.
Many aspects of the Enertia® House are unusual and innovative – but backed up by science, common-sense, and prototype homes across America. In fact, each aspect listed below increases the energy efficiency of the building. The effect is Synergistic – equal to more than the sum of the parts. The Enertia® House can make more energy than it uses!
 In 1981 the National Institute of Standards and Technology constructed six test buildings in Gaithersburg, Maryland and tested them for energy efficiency. Much to their surprise, Building 5, with walls made of solid wood, was the most energy efficient. This was attributed to “thermal inertia,” a phenomenon where the solid wood walls stored energy during the day, and released it during the night. Actually the energy efficiency of solid wood is well known in the Scandinavian countries where it is the prevalent method of building. (Its long life is well known too. When interviewed during the 1994 Winter Olympics, a Lillehammer couple casually remarked that their solid wood home had been built in 1406!)

Link to “How it Works”, Link to Main Site

First up – the massive multi-billion dollar Abu Dhabi carbon-neutral and zero waste city envisioned by sometimes controversial Norman Foster of Foster + Partners:

World’s first zero carbon, zero waste city in Abu Dhabi The first project as a result of the Masdar Initiative is a new 6 million square meter sustainable development that uses the traditional planning principals of a walled city, together with existing technologies, to achieve a zero carbon and zero waste community. Masterplanned by Foster + Partners, the initiative has been driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and will be a centre for the development of new ideas for energy production. Masdar responds to the urban identity of Abu Dhabi while offering a sustainable urban blueprint for the future. Due to be launched at Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2007, it is an ambitious project that will attract the highest levels of international expertise and commerce, providing a mixed-use, high-density city. The exciting programme includes a new university, the Headquarters for Abu Dhabi’s Future Energy Company, special economic zones and an Innovation Center.

Link to Article

Next is the $7B MGM CityCenter encompassing 76 acres on the Las Vegas Strip (who knew there was 76 acres available on the Strip?) master-planned by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects and featuring the contributions of a variety of high profile architects:

CityCenter is expected to cost over $7 billion. The original cost estimate was $4 billion, but had been pushed up by rising construction costs and earlier design changes. MGM Mirage expects to build over 2,800 condo-hotel and condominium units within Project CityCenter. The Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas hotel at CityCenter will include 400 hotel suites as well as more than 200 condominium units designed to appeal to an international demographic. Two leaning 400-unit condo towers, located in the middle of the CityCenter site and above several floors of retail space, are designed for younger demographic who desire living in an urban environment. CityCenter will also include a 4,000-room resort hotel designed by world renowned architect Cesar Pelli, and more than 500,000 square feet of retail space. The other condo buildings include a condo-hotel with about 300 apartments and a bigger tower with about 1,500 condo-hotel units.
The multi-use project is being designed with green technologies to make it one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Plans include garden roofs, the use of reclaimed water, and an on-site power plant. MGM Mirage will pursue LEED certification for the project as outlined by the U.S. Green Building Council. MGM Mirage has reached a $100 million agreement with Siemens to design and build a central energy plant to help power and cool Project CityCenter.

Link to CityCenter, Link to Wikipedia entry

While it’s often said that consumer products—from electronic devices to Ikea furniture—are “made to break,” a little over a year ago I started wondering about buildings. Do real estate interests, I wondered, plan for obsolescence in the same way product designers do?

Carrie McLaren, at Stay Free!, posted a fascinating interview recently with Robert Zagaroli III, Associate Professor of Architectural Technology at New York City College of Technology. The interview was inspired by the author’s house-hunting experience in NYC, which was reflected the all-too common choice of buying new for convenience and modern appointments vs. buying used for longevity insured by the blood, sweat and tears of the now-rare skilled labor force that built this country. (The author ended up in a century-old brownstone, in case you’re wondering.) The interview touches upon several key points including construction materials and practices, economics of skilled labor, consumer demand, building codes and environmental consciousness. Equally pertinent are the comments following the article that provide some insight into an issue that certainly affects more than New York City.

Link to Article

When a major earthquake strikes, deep, sandy soils can turn to liquid, with disastrous consequences for buildings sitting on them. Currently, civil engineers can inject chemicals into the soil to bind loose grains together. But these epoxy chemicals may have toxic effects on soil and water, said Jason DeJong, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.

The new process, so far tested only at a laboratory scale, takes advantage of a natural soil bacterium, Bacillus pasteurii. The microbe causes calcite (calcium carbonate) to be deposited around sand grains, cementing them together. By injecting bacterial cultures, additional nutrients and oxygen, DeJong and his colleagues found that they could turn loose, liquefiable sand into a solid cylinder.

“Starting from a sand pile, you turn it back into sandstone,” DeJong said. Similar techniques have been used on a smaller scale, for example, to repair cracks in statues, but not to reinforce soil.

The new method has several advantages, DeJong said. There are no toxicity problems, compared with chemical methods. The treatment could be done after construction or on an existing building, and the structure of the soil is not changed — some of the void spaces between grains are just filled in.

DeJong and his collaborators are working on scaling the method up to a practical size, and applying for funds to test the method in the earthquake-simulating centrifuge at UC Davis’ Center for Geotechnical Modeling. The centrifuge is part of the national Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Link to Press Release from Digg

• “Does your office environment get you down? Then you might want to consider working with Tom Hicks. In buildings that receive USGBC’s “platinum” certification, its highest rating, natural light permeates the entire floor. Sometimes, cubicles have their own thermostats, so employees can control the temperature. The roof of Hicks’ building, at 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue, has a garden so workers can take a relaxing break at lunch. Oh, and by the way, the urinals don’t flush.”
  

  Link to Article (from Digg)

• Swinerton Builders, a leading general contractor throughout the Western U.S., and a leader in environmentally sustainable building practices, has announced a renewed company-wide initiative toward ‘green’ construction practices throughout their operations. A major San Diego site tops the list of green building in progress under the Swinerton banner. Located in Kearny Mesa, the Sunroad Enterprises’ Centrum 12 building is the first Pre-Certified LEED Core and Shell project in the San Diego region. The Class “A” 12-story
  office tower is within easy walking distance of homes, restaurants, banks and other neighborhood services. During construction, 50% of all construction-generated waste is being recycled. The site features low-water consumption landscaping and light-colored hardscaping to reduce daytime temperatures, while the interior provides natural daylight, non-toxic adhesives, paints and coatings. Water-conserving fixtures are all specified in the design, resulting in savings of over 38%, compared to standard fixtures. Through this project, Sunroad Enterprises is participating in the EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

  Link to SwinertonGreen.com

• “Energy startup The Citizenrē Corporation’s haiku-like Google ad says it all. ‘Solar for free,’ it headlines. ‘No initial investment needed. Just monthly payments for power.’ Instead of making you spring for $25,000 or more in gear, Citizenrē says it will loan you a complete rooftop solar power system, install it for free and sell you back the power it generates at a fixed rate below what your utility charges. The company hopes to make back its investment with those monthly payments, augmented by federal tax credits and rebates.”
  

  Link to Wired Article

“Early one Saturday morning in January, Kevin Rowell dumped a bucket of dark mud on the floor of his big south-facing bedroom. It landed with a plop, spreading out and merging with a blanket of wet earth that already extended across much of the room. On his knees, Mr. Rowell took a trowel to the pile, nudging it this way and that until the mud was roughly level and about an inch and a half deep.

As Mr. Rowell finished smoothing that section, his wife, Marisha Farnsworth, appeared at the door and handed him another bucket of mud. A moment later, another plop, and the process continued. The mud was expanding, and would soon cover the entire floor .

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Mr. Rowell, 28, as he stood back to take in the whole room. ‘It’s just what we wanted.’”

These innovative so-called natural builders are using mud mixed with lime and sand as a floor covering that is not only energy efficient, but is ecologically sound as well. The earthen floors are excellent at retaining passive solar energy and provide a very unique look to any room. The obvious question is, “but doesn’t that make your feet dirty?” By sealing the floors after drying (the curing takes a few weeks) with linseed oil and beeswax, the flooring is resilient and easy to clean. The biggest obstacles to overcome with this ground-breaking (sorry) material is cracking and damage from high impact distress caused by table legs and high heels. But then something about a dirt floor doesn’t exactly scream high heels.

Link to Article (via treehugger and digg)

Planned over nearly 20 years by Black Mountain Ranch LLC, Del Sur faced multiple obstacles and opposition, leading Fred Maas, BMR president, to forge innovative alliances with community and civic groups to pursue his vision for responsible, sustainable design. Del Sur is now heralded as an exemplary product of smart-growth planning.

The community meets or exceeds stringent local and state environmental requirements. Del Sur also has won important environmental awards, and the property’s Ranch House — open to all as an education and resource center — is in line for Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), and recognition as one of the world’s most environmentally progressive buildings.

Recycling and resource conservation are central to the Del Sur philosophy, but established programs were not readily available. Maas developed a landmark community-wide program to coordinate recycling efforts that has successfully diverted over 92 percent of construction waste since September 2005, and saved builder costs and truck trips. It is a new model for future communities.

BMR also mandated that at least 20 percent of the community’s homes incorporate solar energy systems. Some neighborhoods exceed the minimum, installing photovoltaic technology in as many as 40 percent of homes or more. When completed, Del Sur will be one of the largest solar-powered communities in California. Homeowners annually will save more than $58,000 collectively, which also translates into saving 35,000 barrels of oil.

Significant water savings are achieved through mandatory tank-less water heaters and weather-based satellite irrigation systems in most homes. These water-saving systems can potentially save up to 40,000 gallons per home per year. The community also requires at least half of all landscaping be drought-resistant, and reclaimed water is used in community landscaping.

The Ranch House showcases ultra-progressive sustainable design technologies. Recycled and rapidly renewable materials include stones reused from the site; recycled beams from an old pier; reclaimed floorboards harvested from a barn; blue jeans cotton for insulation; cork flooring; countertops of compressed sunflower husks; and cabinets and ceilings made from wheatboard.

Del Sur (via Market Wire)