Sustainable Housing

1. Sustainable Housing Presented by:Kimberly Kozel

2. Not a new Concept The idea of sustainable development has been around a long time • People used only the materials available in their region to them to build housing • Warm climate: use mud bricks • Cooler forested area: use wood for your housing, heating, and cooking.

3. Sustainable Design: • “Sustainable design recognizes the interdependence of the built and natural environments; it seeks to harness natural energy flows and biological processes, eliminate reliance on fossil fuels and toxic materials, and improve resources and efficiency. In the short run, the impact of these changes will reduce the environmental impact of our designs. In the long run, the goal is to create buildings that are not only not harmful but actually part of natural systems and restorative of those systems. Sustainable design is concerned with the quality of our environment as a whole system”

4. Goals: • Waste nothing • Adapt to place • Use “free” resources • Optimize rather than maximize • Create a livable environment

5. Financial Costs • Sustainable design is built to last longer • The materials used can be re-used or recycled • More energy efficient, which in the long term saves on utility bills • Can benefit profit margins of builders

6. E-house

7. “Everything we need to build a truly perfect home of the future already exists. But we have to figure out how to select the best of the best and properly integrate it into building.”

8. Other Countries • Germany: has green building codes- all buildings are sustainable by law • Japan: Similar laws to Germany, also requirements for large buildings • Denmark: uses windmills for energy • Brazil: Sugar Cane fuel

9. Critical regionalism: • “Use old techniques to make new ones and promote visual continuity giving a building a sense of place.”

10. E-House • Used local lumber • Preserved mature trees • Recycled demolition materials • High-efficiency doors and windows • Integrated central vacuum • Insulated chimney systems • High efficiency lighting-control systems • Uses wind power • Used local labor • Accounted for daylight and natural ventilation in planning

11. Basic Initiative: Building Sustainable Communities • Began in 1986 • Assisted poor farmers in central méxico • First formal architecture training program: Late 1980’s • Oregon and Washington were first U.S. based projects

13. Basic Initiative: Building sustainable communities “The Katrina Furniture Project focuses on developing culturally sensitive, ecologically sustainable building prototypes that will help to guide the redevelopment process; as well as building the economic and social capacity of those neighborhoods in New Orleans that experienced severe pre-Katrina economic and social challenges through furniture making workshops.”

16. University of Texas-Ausin & Professor Sergio Palleroni • Wants to help revitalize the community in Austin, Texas near 35 • The community is predominantly Hispanic and black • The community is poor and marginalized • There is concern the land may be taken away through development

17. What can be done? • Professor Palleroni and students at UT Austin create a plan to help the community • Begin with neighborhood clean up and talking with residents • Show plans of sustainable design • Show plans to add “granny flats” for extra income source

18. Works Cited Bernstein, Phil. Design E2 Podcast. http://www.basicinitiative.org/programs/global_communities/katrina_furniture_project.htm http://www.e-house.us/ Palleroni, Sergio. Green For all. Design E2. Kontent Real. Pod Cast. Mendler, Sandra, William Odell, and Mary Ann Lazarus. The Guidebook to Sustainable Design, 2nd ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006. McDonough, Michael. “Toward a sustainable nation.”http://www.pbs.org/designe2/e-house_final_.pdf Williamson, Terry, Anthony Radford and Helen Bennetts. Understanding Sustainable Architecture. London: Spon Press, 2003.