Tag: Housing Industry - Page 9
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Passive Design and Passive House Mean Two Different Things
Cliff Kuang does a terrific job covering design at Fast Company, but may be leading his readers a bit astray with his post What Exactly Is a "Passive House" and Why Should I Care? He covers a stunning house by Paul
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Passive Houses Get Good Graphic Explanation
The New York Times has a great graphic explanation of the principles of the Passive House, "airtight buildings that use heat from appliances and even the occupants' bodies for warmth." The Times notes that while they are popular in
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Would You Live in a House Made of Sh*t?
That is the provocative title in Fast Company, about EcoFaeBrick, made from cow dung. It is 20% lighter and 20% stronger than clay brick, it prevents the environmental damaged caused by digging up clay, reduces carbon emissions and increases the income
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Graph of the Day: Driving VS Residential Density
We have always known intuitively that people who live downtown drive less, but this graph shows how dramatic the effect actually is: If you live in a single family detached house you are likely to drive 15,000 miles per year; if you live in townhouses
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Air Krete: Green Insulation from Cement
When it comes right down to it, most insulation is simply some form of entrapped air, whether in foam or in fiberglass or in cellulose. The greenest one is going to have the fewest chemicals that can outgas, the
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EPA's 5th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo
The next generation of eco-design is coming together in Washington DC this weekend for the 5th Annual EPA National Sustainable Design Expo. The expo will draw more than 40 college teams from all over the country to showcase the future of
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Chinese Drywall Update: Mainstream Media Takes Notice
TreeHugger has been on the Chinese drywall story since it started in Sarasota, (Toxic Drywall Rotting Houses, Sickening Occupants in Florida) when the government and the builders all said it was harmless. We
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Sears Offering $99 Home Energy Audits for Earth Day
When companies get into Earth Day, consumers have a chance to score great deals. It's like Christmas in the Spring. Sears is getting serious about home energy audits as a popular purchase among energy-savvy homeowners, and is feeling
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Best of Green: Design + Architecture (Slideshow)
Update: Vote now for Best of Show! Now that the initial voting period has ended, it's time to vote for the 'Best in Show' -- check out the category winners in the Best in Show slideshow, and then click over to Planet Green to View & Vote for your
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Is a Hydrogen Powered House Really Green?
Ron Monahan is trying build an energy efficient subdivision in Aiken, South Carolina, and a few weeks ago announced that he was going to build between one and four Net Zero houses, (homes create as much energy as they use over the course of the year)
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Architecture for 99¢ a Minute
I first heard of Gina Reichert & Mitch Cope from the New York Times article on The Move to Detroit for the $100 House. I heard from them when they commented on Architecture 5¢ Becomes A Movement and a Lightning Rod;
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Cool Green Job Watch: Serious Materials Reopens Factory
More for the Light at End of Tunnel Dept.: There isn't much need for your standard vinyl window these days, and many of the factories have gone bankrupt and closed. But Kevin Surace of
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Jargon Watch: A Field Guide To Sprawl
I thought I knew a lot of these terms from my days in architecture and development, but there is a whole new vocabulary out there, catalogued by Dolores Hayden in her book A Field Guide to Sprawl. Above
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Bucky's Back: Domes Come in From the Cold
An Alaskan company has crossed Bucky Fuller's geodesic dome with walk-in cooler and come up with the Artic Dome [their spelling]. Intershelter's twenty foot diameter dome is built like a boat, with a gelcoat exterior and a core of P2000
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Cool Green Job Watch: Green Renovations
What a great sign, what great marketing; laying out for all to see what you are doing inside. It is another entry in our Light at the End of the Tunnel Dept: the kind of business that gets people working on sustainable, valuable jobs. Nobody puts up
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The Pluses and Minuses of Vinyl
In March, 2005 John Laumer wrote a defense of vinyl windows: Look Out Any Window; in March , 2006 I suggested that he was wrong in A Year Ago in TreeHugger: A Defence of Vinyl. In March,
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Townhouses For Bikers Pack Them In Tight
North American housing is so generic- my first boss said that there are only four house plans in the world and all architects are doing is pushing them around a bit. But sometimes people have different needs, and end up with different answers.
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Packing Heat: The Firepower of the Lowly Caulk Gun
They should credit Van Jones for the title, but Wall Street Journal makes the point about efficiency that is so critical:
