Inhabitat

Puri Indah House: Poetic Sustainability in Jakarta, Indonesia

When Architect Adi Purnomo of Mamostudio set out to design a live, work, and exhibition space for a photographer/painter client, he knew that maximizing natural light would be a necessity. Purnomo also pushed his studio’s creative design process to maintain the temperature of the home’s interior spaces through passive means whenever possible. The resulting Puri Indah House features an intricate series of slanted walls that reflect sunlight throughout the day, while intermingled gardens and interior pools of water ensure that the house is shaded and kept cool.

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Modular Passiv-Haus Concept Offers Customizable, Net-Zero Home

by Bridgette Meinhold, 10/23/09

This prefab concept house, Mini40, comes out of Austria and has a slant towards the increasingly popular Passiv-Haus design method, which promotes a very tight and low-energy design. Hailing from Innsbruck, architect Mario Handle designed this passive home so that it doesn’t require any conventional heating. In fact, in good solar locations, it could be completely off-grid, powered by photovoltaics. The Mini40 was also designed to be constructed with modular parts, and reminds us a little bit of Werner Sobek’s modular homes, although the Mini40 has a slightly warmer aesthetic. And with just as many variations as Sobek’s homes, including the Mini60, Mini80 and Mini120, the concept can be expanded to become a larger-sized home or even multi-family housing.

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SOLAR DECATHLON 2009: Team Ontario/BC’s North House For Cold Climates

by Bridgette Meinhold, 10/14/09

We’ve been bringing you breaking coverage of this week’s Solar Decathlon in Washington DC throughout the week and one of the most interesting homes to emerge from the competition is the North House, a super sleek, high-tech solar powered home designed to generate more energy than it consumes – an especially impressive feat granted that the home was designed for the extreme climate of Northern Canada. Currently in 4th place at the Decathlon, Team Ontario/BC is exhibiting an incredibly impressive showing. With two days left of the competition, they still have a good chance to eek out some more points in the categories of Engineering, Lighting and the biggie, Net Metering, which could still put them in the lead.

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RESIDENCE: Passive Solar “Cascade House”

by Olivia Chen, 05/08/09

Having moved from Arizona to Toronto, the owners of this modern home looked to Toronto-based architects Paul Raff Studio to create a passive solar design that would maximize daylighting for a bright interior reminiscent of their previous sunny abode. All around the house, floor-to-ceiling windows serve as transparent walls that allow light to flood indoors — culminating with a large front window, made up of 475 stacked 19-millimeter panels of glass, that filters light into the home in a textural pattern and inspired the house’s name, Cascade House.

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Eco Education Slunakov Center Uses Passive Design

Situated on the outskirts of the ancient town of Olomouc in the eastern Czech Republic, Slunakov is a center for ecological and educational activities that acts as a gateway to the Litovelske Pomoravi natural reserve. Inspired by the shape of a solar eclipse, the beautiful biocenter is built along the curve of the land and takes full advantage of passive design by employing a southern facade of windows with adjustable blinds.