Best practices? How about practicing restraint and conservation?
A family of 12 could live *comfortably* in this place.

This is a total joke, that in this day and age homes of this size are getting held up as icons of the new "paradigm" in building. It reminds me of Mountain Living magazine's LEED certified Home of the Year.

http://www.logandtimberstyle.com/mountain/dreamhome/sept_firstlook.html

9200 square feet "green" home...if that's not an oxymoron, I don't know what is!!!

Looks like the Tony Montana mansion from Scarface (just needs a tiger chained up out back). Gauche.

That's disgusting on so many levels.

With people of lower (average) income and greater sensibility now almost completely out of the market, this segment is the last gasp for developers- reminiscent of the 1890's mansion boom.

My guess is there's a full size bank vault in the basement suitable for laying by a serious stash of gold bullion, Persian rugs, old master paintings, and case upon case of Chateu Mouton Rothschild.

Wonder if the top story windows open enough for a jump when the market crashes?

Man, and so ugly. Americans like this crap?

What is great about America is that we all can have different dreams. What your dream house and your lifestyle can be totally different than anyone elses!

What I don't agree with is that we force people to live our dreams! Its not right! If you want to live in a small house on solar power and drive a prius, that is fine that is your dream. But if someone else has a different dream don't knock it!

What if me as a Christian forced you to go to bible study and church?
What if a Muslim forced everyone to follow shariah law(prayers 4 times a day read the Koran, women cover their face and head and be worth half a man, Slavery and murder of non believers is OK ETC.)
What if the govt forced us to live in tiny houses and give all of our money to the united nations?

We make laws that restrict the ownership of guns and hunting.

The unintended consequences do affect people who want to protect their family and hunt for food. In New York city the only people who have guns are the people who are bad. What if someone broke into my house there in New York and I shot them because he was going to rape my wife? I would be put on trial for owning a gun and sent to jail. Is this freedom??

What if I live in the State Maine. I have a wife and kids and work has been slow. I take my gun and shoot a deer to feed my family and it is out of hunting season. Should I go to jail just because my family is hungry?? Is this freedom???

Freedom is a very precious thing. People with good intentions are convincing too many of us to give up or freedoms, without realising the concequences of that choice. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

If someone can own a jet and live in a big house that is their choice and dream! If they can pay the bills we should let them! What will be the unintended consequences of restricting this person from doing this?

Many people would loose their jobs. From the person who does maintenance on the jet to the brick layer cabinet maker to the contractor. People would not dream anymore, there would be no reward for hard work and creativity. We wouldn't have the Bill Gates, Henry Fords etc. This is what sets America apart from all other nations!

But this is what American culture has come to!! I showed this house to 5 people at work and all of them said they would want a house like that, regardless of its impact on the environment or what it would cost, 1) to build and b) in energy costs.
Its excessive, its your typical "gody" trashy looking architecture, that is completely wasteful and stupid. There are families losing their homes all over the country because the financed this large homes that they couldn't afford in the first place and it finally caught up to them, and this is what we encourage people to build. Pathetic, disgusting and straight up another example of how low and lame the people in this country has become. The Architect, engineer and Builder of this place should all go run their cars into it, oh cars, no I meant their personal aircraft!
This is absurd!

So... um... what do you do in this place anyway?

I mean my house is 1300 square feet, but it's way more interesting than that.

Quite simply,a pile of crap!Stupid design,hard and expensive to build from a contractors standpoint,too big,an energy hog and a waste of
materials and natural resources.But is this what the public demands?

I'm tempted to take one of these every year in exchange for this kind of perspective. Absolutely vintage, Lloyd, I can't get enough.

That was an interesting piece of political philosophy in the comment from Neil above. I agree that freedom is extremely important and precious.

But freedom is not straightforward. What if there were no road rules? Would that make everyone "free" on the roads? What if there were no laws at all, against assault, murder and robbery? Would that make everyone free? Freedom is brought about by carefully considered rules which limit the power of some people in order to protect the freedoms of others.

The general argument against hugely wasteful houses like this is that they cause a lot of damage to ecosystems, to other creatures and - via the greenhouse effect - to other people as well.

I agree that freedom is hugely important and all limitations on people's actions should be treated with great suspicion. It *is* very important that people are allowed to pursue happiness in their own way. But it is not a simple matter of letting everyone do what they want. Freedom in a community is supported by people limiting their own actions to some extent, to respect the lives of other people in the world.

I like my 1400 sqft digs better, thank you. Who's going to keep up a huge place like this. Can you imagine the search for lost keys?

I'd like to respectfully suggest that all of you have missed the point of this house.

Suppose you're an architect or an engineer and you have some great ideas for energy efficiency and you need a way to try them out and make some money. What do you do?

Why, you build a gigantic monstrosity, sell it to some rich chump, and turn a healthy profit. This enormous house is what is going to turn the heads of investors and get your efficient technologies off the ground. Not twenty tiny 1000sf houses that don't appeal to Americans with super-sized appetites.

Don't waste your energy wringing your hands over the relative handful of these super-houses that may be built. Worry about the millions of other homes that *really* matter: the ones and your neighbors live in.

That seems rather wasteful when the same amount of money could be used to create something quite unique and more appropriate for the average family, leaving them with a larger plot to run free in. Why do people in the US (in general) always value quantity instead of quality?

To Mr Peterson's comment about freedom: take a look at South Africa... so much freedom, freedom to kill, rape and steel without consequence or regard for human life. I would rather have limited freedom with restrictions and be able to live a normal life without the fear I previously endured and now I do because I live in the UK. Your comment is also deeply hypocritical considering how the US is forcing ideals of freedom to people who clearly don't want it, If they wanted it they would fight for it.

I wrote to NAHB: http://www.nahb.org/contact_us_form.aspx?sectionID=178

I am writing to express my outrage with your selection of "The New American Home" - a "6,725-square foot, plantation-style house located in the prestigious Waters Edge subdivision, a gated, 11-lot development adjacent to a private golf and country club community." How is this an appropriate and representative choice? Who can afford this home (especially in the current housing crisis)? How can you call an over 6000 square-foot house with TWO two-car garages in a gated community green?? Who cares what kind of dishwasher is installed: small and efficient is green; walkable distance to amenities is green; density is green. There are plenty examples of more modest but modern and cutting-edge homes in America. I think you need to get back to reality.

That is a huge house!!!!!

www.efficientlightingco.com

You can have a portico, or you can have a cupola. You can't have both.

Gratuitous "New American" excess - for people with more dollars than sense. (:-(

Educate
Educate
Educate

This is relevant; not because most people can not afford it and it is not much of a threat what the rich do without regard for others (its how most become rich BTW.)

The problem is the hype such things get that promotes this form of consumerism so others aspire to have it or emulate it within their own budgets. The only sign of progress is how they attempt to at least greenwash by doing more green methods, these are the people who can afford cutting edge greener products and unfortunately influence others so while they are being wasteful if they help use their influence to promote more "green" practices then they are helping a little bit. Its not exactly their fault there is an industry creating desire for such consumerism. A healthy person wouldn't want such a house.

BTW, americans are big on front yards because only the rich used to have them - now its the norm and everybody wants the wasteful things; how many of you have a front yard? Do you do anything with it? - I thought so. Its crazy. My city wouldn't let me put the garage on the road; I was forced to have a large useless front yard.

The guns and hunting comment is off topic; hunting is NOT a right but OWNING guns is a right (just arming not using them. think.)

I live in a 1100sq ft townhouse and carpool to work. I recycle, promote green energy and earn carbon offsets on my credit card.

Would I want this big house – sure as long as it is made in a truly sustainable way. I also want all electric Chevy Suburban that is produced in a sustainable way and powered 100% by clean energy.

We are not quite there yet. But it would be really cool to learn to make such things sustainably. Instead of starting a war on rich, I’d rather put efforts on ensuring that every poor has a choice to become rich (that’s already the case in America and we should keep it that way).

Let’s make America green and keep it prosperous!

This house is huge!
They may be utilizing best practices to build this home - is this just a load of 'green-washing' ? Does building it in a more efficient manner make you believe that it is 'greener' than other new homes?
I'm all for 'Taking advantage of energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption without sacrificing style'.
But this whole house is an oxymoron!
Unfortunately, it is hard, to truly have NO impact on the environment. We have to choose between the lesser of the evils. Maybe the materials used are recycled or the wood used originates from managed forestry programs - but they still need to be transported to the home site? The transportation alone contributes to the huge carbon footprint of the home!
If only they could produce as much electricity as needed to run the home, through their own source of clean, renewable energy sources; then it might be a home worth talking about..?
Someone, somewhere is making a load of money on that - do they think that claiming they use 'Best Building Practices' makes it a better place to live in?

Wow, I could fit my family, my sister's family, my mother and my inlaws in there, and probably still have extra room! That's about the only way I could call it green, sheesh!