Build and Renovate Environmentally
If you are about to buy or build a house make sure it is environmentally sound. It will make a difference to you. You will be much more comfortable in a house that is working to help the environment rather than being against it. It can be cooler in summer and warmer in winter without any additional use of electricity.
If time allows go to look at the house you are about to spend hard earned money on at the worst possible time. Go on a hot and windy day or when it is freezing cold. Go in the rain when the sky is dark or in the late afternoon. Don’t let yourself be seduced by a spring day or lovely autumn weather that will make the house seem perfect. It might not be on the wrong day. See past the flowers and the smell of coffee if the house is being tarted up to receive you by an estate agent. Check which way it is facing, where the windows are and smell the drains.
If you are renovating an existing house you probably already know its faults. Renovating the right way may fix some of them. If you are planning to build a house you can make a perfect plan on the drawing board and stick to it. Creating an environmentally friendly house is getting easier. Councils are being forced to look at buildings in a different way.
Begin by making a list of all the things you would like to have in your home such as how many rooms. Bedrooms, living spaces, at-home offices, kitchens, bathrooms, verandahs and patios. There could be more than one kitchen if you include an outside kitchen/ barbecue. Then add all the subsidiary things you want such as picture windows, heated floors, pantries, built in wardrobes and book cases etc. When you are sure that you have included everything you want then show it to a builder who understands and has already built eco-housing.
You can get a list of such people from the Housing Industry Association. A suitable builder will talk you through your ideas and tell you if they are possible before anyone sits down to make a plan.
You may be suggesting a very expensive house but good design is not expensive if simple construction is understood and carried out. Any extra expenditure on design features and appliances will be quickly repaid by the saving in energy bills and maintenance. Australian families spend 40% of energy costs on heating and cooling their houses. If all this is part of the house it just contributes comfort without fuss as a background accessory to the life of the house.
To some people a house is only four walls and a roof. It uses x amount of energy and emits x amount of waste over its lifetime.
But a house can be looked at as a living organism. Water can be accessed from the sky to a tank big enough to service the whole house. Proper insulation of ceilings, walls and floors will help produce an even temperature throughout the year. Strategic vents can extract heat by wind power. Australia has enough sunshine to provide solar power to the house with enough left over to feed back into the system ina sort of banking system. Waste water can be recycled for the gardens. Cross ventilation was once considered imperitive for Australian houses but now many large houses are being built on American and English patterns that have no cross ventilation. Bring it back so that in summer your house catches every breeze that blows. Site your house to face north with wide eaves or covered verandahs that will let the sunshine in when the sun is low in winter and exclude it in the summer.
It is completely possible to live in eco housing that will give you year round comfort and the cheapest energy bills in your street and suburb. Make your garden part of the scheme. Plant wind breaks where necessary. Grow your own vegetables and plant deciduous trees for shade in summer and sunshine through the bare boughs of winter. Fruit trees for instance. It is all simple and possible.
Biophilic Design Shy Relation of Green Building
Green building is more than just a trend. An often overlooked part of Green building is what is called Biophilic design. The goal of this sub-genre is to bring the outdoors into interior living spaces, either residential or commercial. The introduction and interaction with natural elements for aesthetic and health purposes is beginning to receive wider acceptance as indoor air pollution becomes a growing concern for urban dwellers and suburban ones who live in air-tight energy efficient homes.
Biophilic design injects real or simulated natural components into living and working spaces to promote emotional and physical wellness. Morning sun exposure, water features, natural vistas through window-walls, sky-ceilings, and greenhouse rooms where plants dominate and restore air quality while providing an indoor forest refuge are some common applications of this recent design extension. Biophilic design is based more in a emotional or Zen-like perspective than save-natural-resources Green building. Understanding that nature and natural settings allow humans to relax and is part of our DNA, professors at major universities study ecology and it’s effect on our home environments as well as dispositions.
Here are some tips to get a start on Biophilic design in your home.
- Find a room that faces good morning sun and install floor-to-ceiling windows to receive a daily dose of high-powered natural light. Studies show that hospital patients who receive morning sunshine need almost a quarter less pain medication that those with north facing windows.
- Install a sky ceiling in a family or living room. These new ceiling systems mimic full-spectrum light emitted from mid-day skies.
- Place a waterfall or pond with fountain in side a favorite room. Flowing or spraying water adds a relaxing sound to your environment and helps screen out exterior noise pollution.
- Build a green house room with many indoor and outdoor plants, more the better. Put a comfortable chair to use for reading or relaxing in your home garden.
- Use window-walls to allow outdoor vistas in. I have seen homes that installed large glass areas in a well-used room. The increase in natural light and the ability to see from the ground to the sky is welcomed especially in the dark days of winter.