Design & Architecture

Our friends at Grist have taken a peek at the first cradle-to-cradle house, which will be built in Gainsboro, Virginia (outside Roanoke) starting next month. It might not be the first place the springs to mind when considering a ground-breaking (no pun intended) architectural project, but, as author Allison Milionis writes, it may be the perfect place to prove that green can also be affordable and mainstream. The original winners, a Seattle-based team led by Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum, were passed over (more on that here) in favor of a design that would be more economically viable and would ruffle fewer feathers in the old southern neighborhood. Says Milionis, "The result is a house that conjures images of mom and apple pie, backyard barbecues and front porch swings. There is nothing about this house that says 'gray water treatment happens here'", and that's exactly the point, according to Gregg Lewis, the C2C Home organizer (read our interview with him here). "We want to show that a green home doesn't need to cost more or look different from its neighbors," he says in the article. No matter which side of the fence you come down on about this design, cradle-to-cradle homes are a great idea, and we'll keep a keen eye on the progression of construction on the house that takes us from the cradle to the cradle. C2C Home via ::Grist