Innovative architects turn used shipping containers into homes
In this era of scouring the earth for the magic bullet in home building, few ideas can compete with the weird, pragmatic beauty of the used shipping container. Cheap, strong and easily transportable by boat, truck or train, these big steel structures now litter the ports of America as mementos of our Asian-trade imbalance. (Many more full containers arrive on our shores than depart, so ports either ship them back empty — to the tune of about $900 per — or sell them.)

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From the start, Walter Thomas Brooks has regarded each building as an experiment.

“Each building has a principle behind it, usually related to organic or natural form,” Brooks says.

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Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest grocer, has decided to take organic food seriously. Beginning later this year, Wal-Mart plans to roll out a complete selection of organic foods – certified to have been grown without pesticides – in its nearly 4,000 stores.

The company says it will price all this organic food at only 10 percent more than the conventional kind. Organic food will soon be available to the tens of millions of Americans who now cannot afford it. That is the good news.

The bad news? Wal-Mart is notorious for exploiting every loophole, externalizing every cost, and treating everyone it deals with badly. Will they extort the organic farmers as they do the other manufacturers?

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Lost & found: The mid-century modern houses of Chuck Reed Jr. still survive in Florida

Some unique sub-tropical interpretations of the Frank Lloyd Wright school of organic architecture.

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STARTING JUNE 3rd
Emerging Trends Design Competition Class

Study cutting edge design and get published.
Eric Corey Freed will be teaching this six-week course, where students participate in a real design competition as part of a team. Three to seven competitions available during the time frame of the course are preselected by the instructor. Participants discuss them and select one to pursue. Students learn how to work in a project team and how to set and meet deadlines, explore ideas, and build a portfolio.
ENROLL NOW
COST: $375

Here is the latest model of one of our current projects. it is an addition to a very small existing house. The walls are made from ICF’s and have a super high insulation value of R-34. The building is oriented to the sun, not the street. The windows frame views. Of course, non-toxic finishes, paints and adhesives used throughout. The screen on the west side is a sun shade made of bamboo. Solar panels and a water catchment system are also included. Although it is not even started construction, it is already being featured in Innovative Home Magazine. Our client refers to it as a jellyfish (sometimes octapus) based on the shape of the floor plan.

Online Tools
We get dozens of requests for suggestions of Green Building software or online tools. Here is a list of the sites we use. Please contact us if you have additions.

The Sensor Placement + Optimization Tool or SPOT is intended to assist a designer in quantifying the existing or intended electric lighting and annual daylighting characteristics of a given space and to help establish the optimal photosensor placement for the space relative to annual performance and annual energy savings.

Eagle GeoCode will calculate the longitude and latitude of any street address. We use this information to calculate the angles of the sun.

Financial Incentives for Solar Energy lists the incentives and rebates in California for Solar Panels.

Sun Path Program creates sun charts for any latitude location.

The photovoltaic performance calculator , PVWatt, calculates typical performance of solar electric arrays for more than 200 locations in the National Solar Radiation Database.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy. DSIRE now includes state and federal incentives for energy efficiency.

Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) 2.0K Software for measuring environmental and economic performance.

GreenerBuildings a free resource to help companies of all sizes and sectors understand and address building design, construction, and operation in a way that aligns environmental responsibility with business success.

All Tech Lighting offers this free online calculator to help building owners understand the financial impact of replacing or retrofitting their existing lighting to energy-efficient systems. Simply enter the number of fixtures, number of hours on per day, and cost per killowatt hour to calculate your savings.

Building Energy Software Tools Directory: More than 275 energy-related software tools for buildings, with an emphasis on using renewable energy and achieving energy efficiency.

EnergyPlus is a building energy simulation program for modeling building heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows.

eVALUator Financial Analysis Software calculates life-cycle benefits of improved building design investments. The analysis considers a variety of factors over the life of a project, including energy costs, financing costs, operations and maintenance costs, and tax implications.

A great little documentary on
Simon Rodilla and the building of the Watts Towers in south-central Los Angeles.

The Towers (1957)

While there, be sure to check out the rest of the Prelinger Archives

An Italian site dedicated to Organic Architecture:
The International Web Portal of Organic Architecture

Green and beautiful: Make design decisions that please the earth and the eye