In desertlike regions temperatures often go to extremes, with differences between daytime and nighttime of about 20-30 degrees Celsius. This is the case with this golf club community house in Chihuahua, northern Mexico. To take advantage of the soil’s thermal mass and reduce temperature variations, the architects of PRODUCTORA partially buried its 375 sq.m. into the ground. Thus, the soil absorbs heat during the day, and gives it off at night. Besides, buried into the mountain slope, with its patios and slanted roof, the house looks marvelous, just like a natural extension of ground itself.

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Half buried house in Mexico profits from soil’s thermal mass

Have an unexpected guest? Or maybe there is a lack of space in your home? Whichever the case, Clei has a solution – just slide the TV and unfold the bed! Designed by Pierluigi Colombo and Giulio Manzoni, Poppi Theatre is a transformable unit that combines a bed with a LCD/Plasma TV stand and a boiserie bookcase. Practical, besides multifunctional, often means small as well, so Poppi Theatre makes no exception – with its humble dimensions (336×140x77,5cm), it easily fits into any room. Beautiful, smart and useful, this charming Clei’s creation will gain many fans for sure.

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TV + bookcase + bed = Poppi Theatre by Clei

It is built on a steep sloping grade which made it possible to set the main level of the house up into the tree canopy, to evoke the feeling of being in a tree house.
Extending out into the forest canopy, the recently completed Wilkinson Residence seems to disappear into its surroundings.

The musician client wanted a house that not only became part of the natural landscape but also suggested the flow of music…

…And this lovely house truly moves through the forest setting like a piece of music moving through time.

The architect explains; “The client desired a house that felt as if it were isolated in the forest and that would allow him to hear the songs of birds.”

This house evades illustration with just still camera shots; you have to walk through it to feel the way the interior space flows seamlessly through to the exterior. One must actually stroll through the house to grasp its complexities and its connection to the exterior.

“An architect is an artist, creator, logician of evolving aesthetic structures; a designer of not only the visual, but also internal space, says architect Robert Harvey Oshatz. “I see architecture as a synthesis of logic and emotion, exploring and fulfilling the dreams, fantasies and realities of my clients, to create buildings that are at peace with their environment while the occupants are at peace within.”

“I do not approach architecture from an academic or theorist outlook, but rather see each individual project as a new experience. This works best for me. I have no desire to paint a canvas the same way twice.

Every work of architecture has an idea behind it. Every site and every client is uniquely individual and when one sees that the inspiration or source of an architectural idea is within the fusing of these two components; it follows that there is no shortage of ideas. Rather than the vain search for an idea, I am always hopeful that tomorrow will bring a new project and new ideas to explore.”

“I enjoy new problems to solve. Whether they are complicated or simple problems makes no difference to me. I try to do the best that I am capable of in a particular movement in time. I do not try to be different for the sake of being different. If I am different, it is to make a difference.”

Images via the architect

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Lyrical Home for a Music Lover Evokes Forest Songs

Homeowners with rigorously modern interiors sometimes find it hard to carry on the modern look when they turn their attention to the outdoors. Yes, it’s easy to find the traditional styles of wicker, plastic, teak, or wrought iron furnishings for patios, verandas and terraces. But what about the cool modern stuff? Well, we’ve got some ideas for those tired of plastic fold-up chairs. Take a look:

Hemisphere by Dedon. Tables and chairs are fashioned of synthetic platinum-colored fiber. Club chairs run about  $2000 without pillows. The footrest is about $1500.

Brasilia designed by Ross Lovegrove for Zanotta. In rigid polyurethane, varnished with an anti-scratch coating. The chaise is about $2644. The footrest is about $950. Both are available in various colors.

Stools from the  Tokyo-Pop series designed by  Tokujin Yoshioka for Driade. Stools come in white, sand and orange and cost about $370.

Vintage by Tribù. Chaise lounge in polypropylene with glass fibers, about $3,260.

Other great sources to check out for interesting outdoor furniture include:

Dedon Garden Furniture
Gandia Blasco
Atmosphera
Alias
Pircher
Bonacinapierantonio

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Design Dilemma: Finding Modern Outdoor Furniture

So it makes good green sense to build eco prefab houses with steel…

Steel does not spread fire. Building with steel allows for a lighter load, so it does not require a huge concrete foundation. Making concrete is one of the most carbon intensive building industries there are, producing the heaviest carbon footprint.

And steel framing makes for construction simplicity: these homes are able to be erected by hand and do not require welding, special torque tools or specialized inspections. This allows an entire house to be framed and enclosed in less than five days.

The sustainable elements are built in onsite, such as what appears to be an industrial-strength radiant flooring system, (maybe someone can correct me in the comments if I’m wrong in assuming that’s what this is)

Again, it looks like these workers are blowing on a thermal mass to create a warm radiant heated floor for cold desert nights, and this could be powered by a solar thermal system on the roof to heat the water. However no mention of radiant flooring or solar is made on the prefab site at Blue Sky Homes so I could be wrong. But if not, why not? The site looks decidedly off grid.

To grade a traditional home pad would have irreparably damaged this beautiful site, instead the house stands above the terrain on legs, which is becoming an increasingly common new eco building vernacular: because this allows local wildlife to continue to move freely underneath the house without disturbing the human interlopers in their land. And vice versa.

This part prefab system offers 500 square foot modules that can be combined in any combination to create houses of any horizontal configuration and up to three stories tall. At the center is a factory built “core,” where the bathroom, hot water tank, air handler, washer/dryer and electrical subpanel are all located:

This core unit is constructed in a factory, shipped to the job site as a pre-assembled element and lifted into place with a small crane. The only on-site work required is hooking up rough plumbing and electrical to the “core,” which takes a few hours as opposed to the weeks it traditionally takes to install these elements on-site.

Designed with assistance from a team of engineers and the LA Architectural firm 02Arch this sustainable desert prefab home by is framed with cold-formed, light-gauge galvanized steel to create a bi-directional, moment-resisting frame.

This home is sited 4,000 feet above sea level amid massive weathered boulders and ancient piñon and juniper trees.

Images: Blue Sky Homes
By Susan Kraemer

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A Steel Prefab Treads Lightly on a Desert Floor

DADA Partners show the new face of Indian architecture through this luxury mansion in the suburbs of Gurgaon. According to the architects, the house should as well serve as an example for fusion between modern and traditional style in India’s home building practice. And it really is – on the one hand we have a building organized around a central courtyard, suggesting the Indian home’s connection to nature, and on the other – the sleek modern design with lots of mechanical louvers and aluminum sunshades. Knowing that every modern home should be eco-conscious, DADA designed the house pretty sustainable with natural ventilation, solar collectors and minimum use of artificial lighting.

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India’s new face: modern home by DADA Partners

PCKO Architects in co-operation with MOFO Architects show us how to build beautiful homes with  a minimum footprint and a maximum enjoyment on nature. The Jodlowa House near Krakow shines with its fully glazed facade, floating above the ground thanks to its steel frame. The modern glass house tempts with an indoor swimming pool, 2 bedrooms and 140 sq.m. living area. However, the most tempting part is the five-storey tower, consisting of guest rooms on the lower levels and a study on the top that offers extensive views on the surrounding nature. And talking about nature – a mature tree on the plot is preserved by integrating it into the house thanks to openings in the ceiling and the floor. Wonderful idea, isn’t it?

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Nature loves it: modern glass house near Krakow, Poland

Why? White roofs are green.

White roofs keep things cooler naturally, so they save on air conditioning costs and cut carbon emissions. Painting your roof white could save as much as 20 percent of your air conditioning costs – that’s a savings of $1 billion per year in the US alone, considering that 90 percent of US roofs are black.

Even without incentives and mandates, white roofs make sense for California and Florida:

The ancient Greeks tapped into the natural cooling effects of white roofs from at least 1,000 years ago, if not longer. They used simple limestone pigments and a cleaning agent called “loulaki” ( “lilac”) with a distinctive blue color added to cut the brilliant radiance a bit for ease on the eye. While the ancient Greeks had no Cool Roof Council to give them the radiance ratings, now you do.

Here are the various energy reduction ratings for the top cool roofing paints that are currently available, through the Cool Roof Council. While a cool roof is no zero energy application the way that a solar powered roof is, cool roofs do make sense to help reduce cooling costs.

There are cool roof green rebates and tax breaks through the Recovery Act.  For details about the incentives, check the EPA’s articles on cool roofs.

Via Daily Green

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White Roofs Are Green

We are seeing more climate conscious design in architecture: In this case; the rain screen.

A skin over the house is designed to manage and harvest occasional heavy precipitation, to provide protection from premature decay from moisture intrusion.

I like the way the rain-screen is carried up over the roof and mounted flush with the photovoltaic solar panels on the roof for a sleek look while also protecting the building.

Like a skin over the building; this Cumuru wood cladding is designed to shed rain water separately from the structure of the building. Rain screens deter rainwater intrusion into walls – by shedding most of the rain and by incorporating storage to reuse the rainwater – which you can see below the doors here.

There’s 8 other sustainable features, as well.

Rather than attacking the symptoms of moisture intrusion, rain screens tackle the source-the forces that drive water into the building shell. By neutralizing these forces, rain screens can withstand extreme environments. They appear to be effective in any climate and handle any weather condition short of a disaster.

All rain screens include the following elements:

• Vented or porous exterior cladding
• Air cavity (a few inches of depth is sufficient)
• Drainage layer on support wall
• Rigid, water-resistant, airtight, support wall

Integral gutters and downspouts are hidden behind the rain-screen. These then carry rainwater for storage in underground tanks.

The home also features passive solar heating through large expanses of south facing glass. These windows are protected from the summer sun with fixed sun louvers made of steel and Cumaru wood.

So as not to trap too much heat, low South-facing operable windows work in tandem with skylight vents in the north-facing roof-top pull hot air out of the top of the building for a thermal chimney effect.

For maximizing filtered daylighting,

a three-level steel frame with milky glass inside encloses the staircase for spatial separation but spreading daylight between the rooms of the house.

The sustainable features are:

1. Enough rooftop photovoltaic solar panels for a net zero electricity supply (90-100%) for an average home.
2. One on-site 1.2 KW Windspire wind turbine that could produce about 20% of the energy an average home (550 kWh a month) assuming wind speed of at least 12 miles-per-hour year round.
3. Geothermal heat exchange between the house and the below-ground 55 degree temperatures year round, providing a constant starting point for both heating and cooling.
4. Epoxy coated gyp-crete floors for interior thermal mass to prolong passive heating and cooling
5. Passive solar design: low South-facing windows with sunlight access to thermal mass in the floor.
6. Heat-chimney effect created with roof ventilation in North skylights for expelling hot air
7. The framing wood was recycled from an ammunition plant.
8. Recycled materials in interior finishes such as the composite recycled paper countertops.

and of course

9. The rainwater reclamation using a wooden slat skin to keep water off the building and stored in underground tanks. Cumaru is one of the hardest woods on the planet and can be harvested sustainably.

But it comes from South America, so there is quite a carbon footprint getting it to Kansas City.

Images: Robert McLaughlin
Via Jetson Green

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Buffalo House to Weather Rainstorms in Kansas

If you find traditional flat tiles for your backsplash too boring, Ann Sacks has something that will totally charm you. Her sculptural tiles are made using sgraffito – an Italian Old World technique which means “to scratch”. The sgraffito technique consists of laying the clay over a surface to get the bumpy look and then, while still wet, the clay is carved in the desired relief. The results are stunning, as you will see below. The green Nautilus design is perfect if you’re looking to add to your bathroom the artistic feel, while the red Dahlia tiles, when put in order, form a beautiful eye-catching floral mural.

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Artistic tiles by Ann Sacks make your backsplash astounding