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Designing for Centuries of Eco Luxury

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Eco luxury. The term seems contradictory. But sustainable architectural design is about not wasting your resources on a home designed to be thrown away. Alpine 2002 is designed with longevity and permanence in mind, to build a home that will be enjoyed for each of the next 250 years.

At 5,160 square feet and $3.5 million, it is not for everybody. But for the few, for the next few centuries, here’s how to design a home that pampers with the real luxury of permanent comfort.

Dual-coated double-pane windows roll open on aerospace grade ball bearings and nautical grade stainless steel to last centuries…

…they reflect back 92% of the energy on both sides, keep out the sun’s scorching rays in the summer, and the warmed air in in the winter.

The 9 KW solar system creates an abundance of energy. This is one system that will possibly need replacing, but not for a half-century, at least. (We don’t yet know how long solar systems will keep producing power, because the first ones built in the 1970s have not given out yet).

Supposedly this home uses 18% of the average home’s energy, but since the average home only needs a 5 KW system to produce all of its electricity, and this one produces only 82% of its energy with this solar, it is not all that green.

But the 9 KW solar system is producing all but 18% of what this home needs, including running an elevator up from the garage – that’s better than running all that from the grid, as most luxury homes do.

Kitchen: sleek, streamlined.

Bathroom: timeless elegance.

Porch: solid construction. Stone. Both earth walls and sandstone are used in various places for the construction.

I don’t know why we accept temporary building technology. Maybe we don’t believe there is much of a future, with climate change. But we need to think as if we and our descendants will be around for a bit.

We used to build for the long term. After all, there are stone castles that have been continuously inhabited for six, even seven centuries. This is a stone castle for the 21st century.

Source: Alpine 2002