This contemporary Australian home by Sustainable Building and Design, completed in 2020, showcases what is possible when sustainability is the goal. The clients wanted to create a comfortable, healthy, attractive home with a small carbon footprint and low maintenance requirements. The design takes full advantage of passive solar principles and minimizes the amount of energy … Read more
On an empty lot next door to a popular craft brewery, the Blockhouse team wanted to build housing that would fit a buzzing Spokane (WA) neighborhood. They carefully placed micro and skinny units around some old-growth trees to create a pocket neighborhood with interior gathering spaces for the community, leaving just a few parking spaces … Read more
The Australian government has provided an excellent guide to achieving passive solar heating in your home that is available online at www.yourhome.gov.au Just be aware that because they are in the southern hemisphere they orient solar exposure to the north rather than to the south, as in the northern hemisphere. This guide covers these topics: … Read more
Set in an old quarry that was replanted 80 years ago with hardwoods and pines, Woodsmoke was commissioned in the early 1990s. Designed by architect Paul Leech, whose other design work spans decades of environmentally-sensitive projects, the steeply-pitched building has 2,300 sq ft within, with some dramatically shaped rooms. Its rooms are spread over five … Read more
The Hjertefølgers, a Norwegian family of six, has installed a 25-feet-high geodesic glass dome over a cob house. The three story house is entirely built from sand, straw and clay, and without being protected this way it would be very thermally inefficient. The single pane glass dome was built by Solardome. The solar geodesic dome … Read more
Three rammed earth walls made of different colored earth define, organize and structure the Montemor House in Brazil. Each wall has a different height and they create a small triangular central courtyard. The house spreads to all sides from the true “heart” which is this courtyard. These walls also organize the spaces of daily life … Read more