Made out of wood and formed chicken wire, “Daily Needs” is a one-stop gardening unit that allows gardeners to grow vegetables, raise chickens or other pets, and to close the cycle by composting any food scraps into more brown gold. Part of the structure can be modified to become a mini-greenhouse or coldframe, by using…. Read more here
From Patrick Creadon, director of WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A., comes a captivating look at a radically innovative approach to education. IF YOU BUILD IT follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie county, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to help re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what’s possible.
Showing on February 14, 2014 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema in Atlanta called IF YOU BUILD IT, about influential designer-activist Emily Pilloton.
The Heatworks Model 1 is a next-generation water heater that reduces water use by 40%, slashes energy use by 10%, and delivers an instant supply of hot water. This heater energizes water molecules and senses temperatures 60 times a second to ensure precise and reliable stream of hot water. The water heater is also WiFi compatible, allowing users to control and monitor the unit remotely.
Being a high performance builder, you have to practice what you preach. This summer we completed a deep energy retrofit to our 1976 California Contemporary. A beautiful home with huge vaulted ceilings, little insulation, and massive amounts of south facing glass designed to overheat the home during our hot summers. Since I have been studying / preaching Passive House, I used the following standards in my home:
One of the first reflections my wife and I have had is the silence. It is extremely quiet. I don’t hear any ambient noise. I still hear a few birds chirping in the morning and the neighborhood rooster. There is no HVAC noise. No creaking when the wind blows. No rain noise at 3am when a storm blows in. No thumping of rap music when the NY Times delivery guy drives through the neighborhood at 4am. It has taken a while to get use to this sort of quiet.Next reflection I want to share is the general comfort. It was 9 degrees F the other morning. I was……. Click on Article to read the rest.
It looks like no single green home certification system will give a homebuilder the whole picture on a home’s performance. Zack Semke of Seattle-based home designer and builder Hammer & Hand … Read more…
When Jessica and Yianni bought this tiny vacation house on Sauvie Island, just north of Portland, they decided, instead of expanding on its 540 square feet, to remodel the house to make the best use of the space available. In this modest footprint they created a retreat with ample room for their young family AND for guests, using …….
