Green Building
Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.
More simply stated, that means designing and building in a manner that costs less to own and costs our environment less to build.
There are many ways available to help achieve this. Many of these practices have been employed for decades and are proven technologies. Not surprisingly, lack of demand and new technology economics have relegated these practices to be cost prohibitive, until recently. In addition to the rising costs of utilities, increased demand and decreased production costs have made Green Building cost competetive.
While technological advances make up a good part of Green Building, we also recognize they are only part of the bigger picture. Our homes are sacred places, environments which need to be beautiful and well crafted. It is often argued that the Solar home movement in the 1970s would have been much more succesful if the architecture wasn’t required to forfeit the design elements which made it comfortable, delightful, charming, and inspiring; all characterisitcs of a successful home. Gontina Building & Design strives to strike a balance between technological advances and good design, to achieve true sustainability.
Green Building Methods
Structural Insulated Panels – Creates tight building envelopes reducing heating and cooling loads and air infiltration
Insulating Concrete Forms – Essentially a foundation forming system resulting in an extremely energy efficient foundation wall system which reduces heating and cooling loads.
Geothermal Heating & Cooling – Harnessing embodied energy in the earth to heat and cool living spaces and domestic water
Deconstruction vs. Demolition – Deconstruction is the process of building removal where all material with useable life is salvaged and all recyclable material is sent to the proper facility for recycling. This process significantly minimizes the amount of debris sent to a landfill.
Green Building Methods
FSC certified lumber – Lumber that is certified to be from a sustainable forest
Recycled content – Materials that contain a certain percentage of post-consumer recycled content
Salvaged material – Materials that have been salvaged from previous buildings
Locally sourced – Materials manufactured or available within 100 miles of the project
Sustainable Design Techniques
- Create relationships between interior and exterior to enhance the experience of both spaces.
- Address occupants well being by orienting the house so that morning activities are invigorated by sunlight and evenings wind down under the glow of the setting sun.
- Give careful attention to building proportion and volume so that spaces feel comfortable and cozy, still allowing for boldness and grandeur where it is appropriate.
- Compliment the existing neighboring homes with suitable proportions of building mass, orientation on the site, material selections, and rigorous effort to protect and enhance existing landscape features.
- Maintain a durable balance between the vernacular of a traditional home and modern amenities and technology.
- Integrate elements and features into every home so that each is unique in response to its particular site and occupants.
- Recognize that buildings change over time by apportioning space for expansion and using assembly methods which can be retrofitted easily in the future.