You're probably familiar with Brad Pitt's juggernaut project, Make It Right -- back in December 2007, we talked about thirteen single-family designs planned for construction in the Lower 9th Ward. A number of these have been built, and the progress has been interesting to watch. In addition, Make It Right just announced fourteen new duplex designs from top international architects. The designs emphasize community, affordability, flexibility, and sustainability, and starting in mid-August, Make It Right expects to break ground on two of these. Check out a preview of all fourteen and the firms behind the designs:
4. Elemental
5. Constructs
7. Graft
9. MVRDV
10. Pugh + Scarpa Architecture
11. William McDonough + Partners
12. Bild Design
13. BNIM
14. Waggonner & Ball Architects
Photos credit: Make It Right.
IdeaPaint says it has the most environmentally friendly dry-erase product on the market. As you can see from these images, the product is applied to your choice of walls, and about seven days later, it's ready to be used. It's just perfect for the brilliant, A Beautiful Mind types, but I realize that many of you never have and never will use a dry-erase product. If you do, give IdeaPaint a look. The company claims green attributes in three main areas.
First, IdeaPaint is a relatively healthy product. It's formaldehyde-free and does not off-gas once it's dry. Second, IdeaPaint requires less energy to make because it's stirred, whereas other dry-erase boards are baked and cured. Third, IdeaPaint ships with less materials than other dry-erase products, and IdeaPaint doesn't require the kind of raw materials used in typical dry-erase products (i.e., wood, steel, aluminum, vinyl, or resin).
If you're an ideas person, you probably jot stuff down all the time. I like to carry a moleskin or legal pad for those bursts of inspiration, but I kind of like the idea of covering a wall at work with this paint. It could seriously come in handy. What do you think?
[$] CRE-8 Water Base IdeaPaint for 50 sf for $175.00.
Photo credits: IdeaPaint.
There's been a lot of talk about various green building provisions in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454 or "ACES"), but there's one specific section of ACES that deserves more attention. Section 204 needs to be included in the green building discussion, because this is where the Building Energy Performance Labeling Program is. With this program, as we predicted with our Seven Green Trends, the federal government could lay the foundation for true and legitimate building environmental impact labels. Let's talk about this unprecedented policy, with a little background discussion.
Across the Pond:
In the last couple years, England and Wales started using Energy Performance Certificates pursuant to EU Directive 2002/91/EC. As you can see above, the EPC has an A to G scale with a snapshot of information. The label provides both energy and environmental impact information, together with the building's current rating. The EPC also provides a potential rating, which is subject to the owner making recommended improvements. The improvements aren't required and the inspection costs roughly $200.
In addition, buildings of a certain size are required to hang Display Energy Certificates to show the public how energy efficient (or non energy efficient) their building is. The program caused quite a stir -- the Times Online said it's a "naming and shaming tactic" -- but with the EPCs, there's a legitimate attempt to provide transparency as to a building's energy performance and environmental impact. The UK's experience with EPCs and DECs is worth monitoring as the U.S. Building Energy Performance Labeling Program grows.
Keeping Austin Weird:
Relatedly, cities in the U.S., including San Francisco and Berkeley, California, are starting their own audit/label related programs. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the new energy audit ordinance in Austin, Texas. According to the ordinance, if a home is more than ten (10) years old, the owner is required to obtained an energy audit and provide the information to potential buyers.
Although Austin is probably the greenest city in Texas, the WSJ article points to some commentary indicating that some people -- ahem, sellers! -- don't like the new law. They don't want to give buyers information that might drive the price of their home down. I wonder if the seller ever stopped to think about what the buyer might want to know about their future home? Regardless, Austin's experience is also worth watching as the U.S. Building Energy Performance Labeling Program gets started.
Section 204, ACES in the Hole:
The text of the Building Energy Performance Labeling Program starts on page 264 of the newest iteration of HR 2454. Section 204 is only about sixteen pages of text, and I recommend reading it, because this information will start to trickle through states and down to the local level after/when ACES becomes law. Here are some of the main takeaways from my initial reading:
Here's the gist: if HR 2454 passes with Section 204 as is, we'll start seeing major movement on building energy performance labels within about a year or two thereafter. With building energy performance labels, stakeholders will be able to obtain otherwise unavailable information and efficiency will somehow become valuable. When efficiency becomes valuable, there will be vast market change and the label, I believe, will then expand to include other environmental considerations. Let's watch this space ...
[+] HR 2454 Waxman-Markey Amendment
Top photo credit: Energy Conserving Newark Center.