In today’s housing market
one bright spot is decidedly green.
Building a green home requires that all stages during a construction are tied together. Selectively focusing on one feature while ignoring others also threatens to diminish the concept of green building as a whole. Green building touches just about everything when a structure is built. Also coastal regulations and climate conditions typically compel us to build to a higher green threshold than might be required in other parts of the country.
Another important aspect to green building is that there are two levels: the big picture concept and the fine details of implementation. Here are some of the things we need to focus on in our project design.
- Locally appropriate: Design features and structural details should be suitable for coastal construction factoring in wind zone and exposure. This isn’t just about aesthetics but rather about roof pitches, overhangs, exposures, glazing area and structural load paths. If you get these right you’re well on your way to a durable home that uses less energy.
- Building orientation: Everyone wants to maximize their view but we can tweak the design to take advantage of prevailing coastal wind patterns for natural cooling, to increase or decrease solar gain, and to improve natural daylighting.
- Footprint: Minimizing the actual footprint of a home while maximizing the living space through sound planning and design can lead to increased savings. Smaller homes require less materials to build and require less energy.
- Building Envelope: This consists namely of insulation and air sealing measures. Even a small constant breeze on a building can drive conditioned interior air through leaks. Special attention needs to be at key building elements; floor to foundation,wall to floor, roof to wall.
- Window and Door selection: Coastal homes usually have greater glazing area than inland homes. Choosing higher efficiency both lower U-factor and lower-SHGC windows and doors will have a great impact on energy performance.
- Minimize site impact: We only clear and dig where we have to. Coastal building sites are often environmentally sensitive. By keeping the natural geography whenever possible and retaining native plants we speed recovery and improve any erosion control issues.
We have all seen many changes in recent years but all remember the feeling of living with natural choices. Now we are offering green ways of living that can make new homes feel like timeless reproductions with beautiful living spaces. We also help older homes stay alive through material choices that keep spaces feeling real. Today our standards and ethics are strongly tied in with sustainable lifestyles and green construction. Our environment and future generations deserve it.
