Owner/Builder

Sustainable Architecture

As "consumers" we are frequently confronted with life style decisions that can impact our environment. There are a few choices in this life that can make a big difference in what the quality of life will be for those who follow us. Going with the flow of our culture is hard to avoid, and unfortunately the flow is not in the right direction for evolving a sustainable future. One of the most momentous choices that any of us will make is the kind of house we live in. I have come up with a list of thirteen principles of sustainable architecture (listed as links on the left) that can guide you in your housing choices.

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Media

Remodel Green: Make Your House Serve Your Life, a Green Home Building Book by Kelly Hart, 2014. Over the course of the author's life he has engaged in numerous remodeling projects, as a professional carpenter, as a home owner, and as a renter. He draws on this experience as he explores with you what he considers to be the main principles that should guide you in your choices for your own green remodeling project.

The chapters include fitting your house to your needs, the basics of passive solar design, tips on keeping your house cool, options to power your house with renewable energy, ways to conserve water, employing local, natural and recycled materials, the value of cultivating vegetables, how to naturally store the produce that you grow, and why to consider sharing some facilities with others for economy and sustainability.

A Sampler of Alternative Homes: Approaching Sustainable Architecture. This two-hour DVD, produced by Kelly Hart, provides an overview of sustainable building concepts. You can enjoy a look at a fascinating variety of homes and the creative people who built them! Discover how passive solar design and environmentally low-impact materials can be used to create comfortable and economical homes. See the use of both traditional materials, such as adobe, and innovative materials, such as papercrete and earthbags. This program offers a wealth of information about construction details and other considerations. It covers adobe block construction, piled adobe (similar to cob), rammed earth, both load-bearing and post and beam strawbale, earthships, earth-sheltering, cordwood, thin-shelled concrete domes, papercrete, earthbags, hybrid structures, and recycling various containers for housing.
$30

The books shown below are arranged according to when they were published, with the most recent ones at the top. If you click on one of the images you will be taken to a page at Amazon.com where you can find out more about the book. If you end up buying one of them, greenhomebuilding.com will receive a small commission that will help cover the cost of maintaining this website. Thanks for your patronage.

Media

ecotecture.com free online journal of ecological design.

newvillage.net semi-annual journal on building sustainable cultures.

buildinggreen.com informative site for Environmental Building News.

motherearthnews.com Mother Earth News has provided solid information on many topics related to sustainable living for several decades, and now many of these articles are available on-line.

hopedance.org magazine for finding pathways to sustainable living and positive solutions.

newbuilder.co.uk publishes Building for a Future magazine, with many issues available on-line.

homebuilding.co.uk The A-Z of Green Homes from the UK's Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine.

Blogs

constructionmanagementdegree.com lists their top 50 green construction blogs, which includes the blog associated with this site.

greenbuildingelements.com is a blog-style magazine featuring articles by various professionals related to all aspects of sustainable design.

greengeezer.com is a blog with this motto: "Green homes for baby boomers: Because there's still time to do it right."

Design Philosophy

mcdonough.com William McDonough's site features articles by and about him and his radical ideas for transforming design into an art of creating no waste.

inika.com this Indian firm combines many aspects of sustainable architecture in their designs.

Online Tools

epa.gov/sustainability this tool allows people to search for specific sustainable resources from the government.

interiordesignedu.org features an extensive gllossary of archectyural terms with further resources for education.

akhomeshow.com a detailed article about air sealing your home.

circularecology.com Concrete Embodied Carbon Footprint Calculator.

Disaster Relief

rebuildingcommunity.org devoted to sustainable disaster relief around the world.

Remodeling

intlistings.com This article entitled "Greenify Your Home: 100 Tips and Resources to Make Your House Environmentally Friendly" offers substantial tips for moving forward with making your home more sustainable.

lowimpactliving.com tips for undertaking an eco-friendly remodel.

norstoneusa.com features this detailed article about sustainable remodeling.

Directories

eco-living.net site with many annotated links.

energyconservationinfo.org has numerous links with descriptions about alternative construction and energy.

greenbuilder.com extensive site of sustainable sources.

greenbuildingpages.com has an expanding database related to sustainable design, products and resources.

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I specifically disclaim any warranty, either expressed or implied, concerning the information on these pages. Neither I nor any of the advisor/consultants associated with this site will have liability for loss, damage, or injury, resulting from the use of any information found on this, or any other page at this site. Kelly Hart, Hartworks LLC.