Tag: Big Steps In Building
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There's an effort to write tiny homes into the International Residential Code afoot
These proposed tiny house building codes will mean safer tiny houses.
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Ready, aim, put out the fire with the Automist Smartscan sprinkler system
All of the benefits of a sprinkler system without all the problems.
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Why every green home (really, every home) should have a sprinkler system
Advanced framing and engineered joists may use less wood and leave more room to insulate, but they will burn a lot faster.
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The smoke detector, reinvented by NEST
Nest, the inventors of the smarter thermostat, turn their attention to the smoke detector and get it right.
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Flame Retardants May Kill More Than They Save
It's time to rethink our practice of adding dangerous chemicals to combustible plastics and putting them in our houses.
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Architect Uses Ancient Techniques To Cool Modern Building in India
Architect Manit Rastogi uses stepwells and screens, technologies that are thousands of years old
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Gimme A Thermal Break Redux: Engineer Calls Chicago's Aqua Tower "Architectural Pornography"
Jeanne Gang's tower is lovely to look at but really, we shouldn't build buildings with radiator fins any more.
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Do Smoke Detectors Save As Many Lives As We Think?
We are relying on technology that is better as a kitchen appliance than a life saver
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Big Steps In Building: Stop Ignoring Orientation And Sun Control
There are some very simple moves one can make to reduce the amount of energy a house uses, that any builder in America could do without adding much to the cost of a house. Builders ignore orientation, window placement
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The End of the Glass Box Is Nigh
There are a lot of reasons that architects design condos with floor to ceiling glass; people like views and they can look very elegant in the right hands. But the main reason they do it is cost;
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Which Is Worse, Air Leaks or Heat Loss? Neither. It's Energy Consumption That Matters
There is a strange debate going on at Green Building Advisor, where a writer thinks "home buyers have been "brainwashed" into thinking only about R-values, as energy codes give short shrift to the
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Better Than A Smoke Detector: An Add-On Sprinkler
In our Big Steps in Building series, I advocated for sprinklers in every housing unit, not just for fire safety, but so that we could also get rid of all those flame retardants that are building
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Architects: Go Back To The ABCs and Design Buildings Like Letters Again
Julia Gersovitz of Montreal's FGMAA Architects made the point: Buildings used to look like alphabets, to minimize the distance to an exterior wall and maximize natural light and ventilation. We have all seen many Cs, Os and a few Es (I forgot to draw
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7 Ways Fixing Building Construction Will Slash Greenhouse Gas Emissions
It really isn't that hard; every architect and builder knows exactly what they have to do to cut greenhouse gases significantly. People just don't want to pay the price, either in cash or in lifestyle changes. Here are just a
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Waxman-Markey Targets For Buildings Are Exactly What Builders Say are Impossible
A few months ago TreeHugger reported on a silly study (That 70s Show: Developers Still Don't Know How To Make a Building Green) from the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (abbreviated as NAIOP, don't ask why)
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Architect Alert: Waxman-Markey Has a Big Impact on Building
Many people are screaming that the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) doesn't go far enough; when architects, builders and building code officials get through it, there will be a lot of screaming that it
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Solar Hot Water First. Then Photovoltaics.
The solar power subsidy is an equal opportunity employer; according to Brian's post, "any solar system you purchase this year is 30% percent off, thanks to the government (or at least, you'll get a tax rebate for that much). Solar powered water heaters
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GreenBuild: Buildclean is a Breath of Fresh Air
I have never understood why the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of the Energy Star rating system; it is not as if the American government really believes that Carbon Dioxide is a problem, and yet in the interest of reducing fossil fuel use
