Saturday, June 30, 2012

Benefits of Green Home Design

Sustainable building and green building practices come with an array of benefits and we hope that as more technology advances and information becomes more readily available, the costs of green building will decrease and become mainstream.

The built environment and infrastructure has a great influence on our natural resources and environment, directly impacting human health and our standards of living. Picture a world built primarily on sustainable practices and intentions. Waste should be considered a crime because we are directly harming one another through harmful building methods. Instead, we hold the power to integrate green construction methods to any building at any stage, from design to construction, deconstruction to renovation. The potential benefits of sustainable building may be unleashed if we just set our minds to it as a whole. It will take the joint efforts of government officials, design and construction teams, and consumers to work together from an early stage of a built project to significantly optimize the sustainable benefits of green building.

The most obvious benefit is environmental. From protecting the biodiversity to delicate ecosystems to improving air and water qualities, the ways in which we gather building materials, the way we construct, the buildings we create, and the technologies we use all play a role in sustaining resources. Reducing waste streams and reducing by-products as much as we can is the most sure-fired way of conserving and restoring our limited natural resources.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Exploring Slow Home Design

What is slow home design? Basically, it is the principle of slowing down to design homes and spaces that are sustainable, practical and functional.

The slow home movement began in 2006 when John Brown, Matthew North, and Carina van Olm wanted to create a "critical response to the poor design practices that pervade the mass housing industry. Our intent is to advocate for a more thoughtful approach to residential design that improves the quality of our daily lives and reduces our impact on the environment". Slow home design strives for a more "considered, calm and intuitive" approach to residential design. The concept is to use well-considered design principles to create smaller homes that will be both environmentally sustainable and literally so, in the sense of being built to endure. The practice also includes remodels of existing, appropriately sized older homes that need updating.

Brown says in an interview with The Chicago Tribune that a slow home is "reasonably sized and carefully designed to support its occupants. It might have an entry where family members can easily take off their boots, stash their keys and store their backpacks, for example. It might have a living space that encourages people to talk or read, not just watch television or surf the Internet. It's energy efficient, filled with natural light and designed for easy flow among rooms and access to the outside."

Monday, June 4, 2012

A Guide for Home Owners

The planning stage of home design often determines whether or not your custom home design will fulfill the dream you had envisioned. Victor Hugo wrote, "Where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign." Hugo was certainly right as far as custom home design is concerned. To avoid wasted time or chaos follow these six tips to help your designer create the perfect custom house plan for your family.

1. Start simple.

It isn't necessary to invest in fancy software to begin making decisions about your custom home plan. All you really need is a pencil and a piece of paper. Brainstorm and sketch your ideas. Making lists of features you want each room to have will help you get your idea onto paper and into your custom home design.

2. Think about the future.

Consider the future of your family and how you will accommodate for different scenarios, such as having children, accommodating grandchildren and grandparents, taking care of elderly parents. Even accommodating extended family for holiday occasions should be considered in your house plans. Similarly, if you hope to transition from an office job to operating your own business out of your home, your custom home design should include an office or flexible space. When you think about the amenities in your custom home plan, be sure to not limit yourself or the growth of your family.

3. Prioritize features.

Once your ideas are recorded in rough form, begin prioritizing features for your new house. Custom home design can easily exceed a budget if you let your fancies run amok. With so many luxuries to choose from, it's important to prioritize the most important aspects of your design. For instance, if you've always dreamed about a box window in the kitchen where you can grow herbs, you may want to prioritize that over installing a line to facilitate a gas stove.