Residential Home 2005 AIA Green Project Winner
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 09.30.05
This home, called the "Eastern Sierra House", is the winner of the AIA COTE award for a residential home. It was designed by Arkin Tilt Architects. Sited some 20 miles south of Carson City, it was designed to showcase a variety of green building practices. The house is virtually energy independent: careful shading, high insulation values, and thermal mass, aided by flushing from cool night air, prevent overheating in the summer. Solar hot-water panels located at the edge of the terrace feed a deep-sand-bed hydronic heating system and provide domestic hot water. A grid-intertied photovoltaic system meets the home's electricity needs.
Using a variety of natural, efficient, and durable materials—primarily strawbale with an earthen finish, metal roofing, and slatted cement-board siding—the home's finishes harmonize with the landscape. The home also features structural insulated panels, insulated concrete forms, FSC-certified wood, and an impressive collection of salvaged materials.
The landscape builds on the existing native sagebrush, adding complimentary climate-appropriate species, permaculture gardens, and wildlife habitat irrigated with greywater. All plumbing fixtures are low flow, further reducing the home's potable-water consumption.
That's cool, but the house still appears pretty damn big...any idea what the overall development footprint is? Would it score any LEED points in the average-house size category?
This is great, a lot of the homes I've been reading about here and researching are built in the "perfect" area (air flow, sunlight)... How's the headway on using these or other area specific designs in various regions around the country? My area is quite specific, Southwest Florida.
how about crap like this not being recognized when it's built on a ridgeline like this? pathetic; the AIA should get over itself--still overconsumed by egregious building practices. shame on you for glorifying it.