Inhabitat

Really Nice, How much would this cost? I live in Indianapolis and a house with this many windows would be an issue with heat bills. I know a little about the energy effecient windows, but does any one know the specifics and the initial costs of such windows?

Also would like to know sq. footage … but will say in advance that if it’s +2,000 then it’s certainly not as “green” as it could/should be. IMHO, it’s not just the type of products used, it’s the quantity required for each residence … and huge homes [which this appears to be] just use too much and have [or should be viewed as having] too large a footprint when talking real sustainability.

Cheers to All

Bamboo Manufacturers, Suppliers and Retailers:

PLYBOO-West Coast
http://www.plyboo.com

BETTENWOODCOURT – East Coast
http://www.bettencourtwood.com
These people are great, bought plenty of bamboo plywood and other green material from them!

I like it! I Just wonder, how really green are all those bioclimatic strategies and renewable materials used. Everybody wants to be green, and the forward thinking architects should really go for green buildings, but what about numbers? How much does all that costs? How many people would be buying all those features? How much would a bioclimatic feature be saving in the general energy consumption? And everybody seems to forget the engineers from the consulting teams, that’s why its easier to talk about features rather than numbers (ok, I’m an engineer). And what about an affordable sustainable home? I’m sure that plenty of them would really cause an impact on energy consumption. Anyway I love this project, I just want to see more affordable sustainable homes (and there are some).

I mostly like the style. Big windows, wood floors, contemporary furniture, etc. And like the others said, that bamboo ceiling is nice.

Though a pool and spa may not be entirely eco-friendly, at least these ones are part of a property that is likely significantly greener than most of its neighbors. I don’t see living green as necessarily equal to living austerely. There are ways to have an eco-friendly pool. Not heating it is one of the bigger ones. Keeping your spa covered when not in use is another way to retain much of the heat being put into it. In terms of hard numbers, the house would be greener without those items, but the owners have done more than most people do and I applaud those steps toward a green future.

any elaboration on that “solar thermal water heating system” would be excellent for a future Inhabitat post

jt: I don’t think there is a single person who reads this blog who doesn’t know that smaller is better when it comes to sustainability. As Bryce points out, it is significantly greener that its neighbors. We would all like to see affordable green homes but the fact is that new technologies are always expensive. We should be grateful to the rich people who buy them because that is the only way those technologies are ever going to be affordable.

CJ: Be careful about deciding what is necessary and what is not for other people. There are a whole lot of people in this world who need a spa or a pool for health reasons. I have a chronic condition that causes extreme muscle spasms and have required a hot tub for 20 years. It does much more for me than any medication ever has but it is important that I use it just before going to bed. A person across the street from me requires a pool for his exercises – and no, he can not do them at a public facility. BTW, my home is less than 1000 sq. ft.

I’ve been inside this home and can tell you that it feels marvelously natural, welcoming, yet very contemporary. It’s not huge. It’s big, yes, but not in the least bit ostentatious or wasteful feeling. In fact, I think they’ve been quite modest for the area and have made the volume feel much more airy than it might otherwise be. Definitely not an eco-McMansion.

Listen, we can all find something to pick at when someone spends money to build a new structure but no one can be 100% perfect in anything we do. I applaud this owner and architect’s vision for this property. They had the funds to build in a much different manner but they chose to trump the norm the best way they could at the time. Money spent on these features trickle down and help us all in the long run. Let’s try to support these incremental changes and urge the next folks to do so to take even bigger steps. We can all do more but some is decidedly better than none, right?

This seem to be another” LIVING HOME” gig that should around the $250sqft mark,EXPENSIVE for sure but compared to those ghastly conventional chicken shacks witch are being built all over the place at a cost of $350-455$ sqft. for the a equivalent home,than it’s not that bad.The only thing i wonder is how accommodating are they?Are they going to make you jump through hoops in order to have the privilege to spend big money on there products as the LIVING HOMES gang does?
Also the ECO crowd should be careful here ,with them it’s only BASH,BASH,BASH,!!!
I echo the sentiment express by wkoriel,bryce and margie nothing will change if you try to have us return to caves ,on diet consisting of bugs and fruits.The people whom read this forum are of a mind witch is ecologically aware and friendly,we all want clean water,clean(organic)food and clean air.Your Moron in the white house just finish waisting a TRILLION DOLLARS for the IRAQIS HOLOCAUST and he ain’t through yet,for that money you could have :
*ALL non-commercial BUILDINGS outfitted with solar panels,wind-powered generator and hydrogen back-up motor
*next to every gas stations a government run electric car power station to “gas-up”a totally electric vehicle
*TOTAL conversion of the national electrical GRIDS to solar,win and hydrogen shutting down all dirty energy sources
*funding FOR TOTAL CLEAN ENERGY CONVERSATION of ALL enterprises in the nation at no cost to THEM!
*And finally the 4 major americans waterways [Pac.Coast Ocean/ATL.Coast Ocean/The great lakes and the Mississippi river]could be TOTALLY clean-up within 5YRS after the start.

all of that without having to fuck ourselves back to the stone age like so many of you are hell bend on doing

We have a sustainable design program Wood Processign & Furniture Design at University of Belgrade and we (students) liked this work very much:)

Here is the link to our catalog: http://rapidshare.com/files/46795681/University_of_Belgrade_-_Wood_Processing___Furniture_Design_2007.pdf

And our blog: http://universityofbelgrade.blogspot.com

[...] love houses like this, this, and this. Sounds like the whole pre-fab thing is going to take off like crazy [...]

It’s actually a prety nice house, I would say….