Gottfried Green

I finally got around to reading The Creation by the Pulitzer Prize winning biologist E.O Wilson. The book is his plea to a generic Pastor of evangelicals who believe nature was given to us by God for our use and it is heaven that is the real prize. This goes against Wilson's feeling that we are but a humble part of nature and therefore must respect our delicate place. Something that caught my eye specifically was his definition of the word biophila. He explains an example in the fact that when asked, people from all over the world, if they had to choose, would select a living environment similar to the environment of early humans. When asks people stated, "they wish to live on a height looking down and out, to scan a parkland with scattered trees... closer to a savanah then to either a grassland or closed forest and to be near a body of water such as a lake, river or sea." He goes on to say that although not proven it does make a nice case of why so many people want to get back to nature and specifically, waterfront i.e. the representative vacation home. "...this interpretation holds that human beings today still choose the habitats resembling those which our species evolved during millions of years of prehistory. The distant forebears wished to be hidden in copses looking out over a savanna or transitional woodland, scanning the terrain for prey to stalk, fallen animals to scavenge, edible plants to gather, and enemies to avoid. A body of water nearby served as a territorial boundary and an added food source." It is true that some people wouldn't be caught dead in the "country". But there is something that rings true with why so many want a second or retirement home with these natural amenities. As a species we've been intimately tied with nature from our beginning. In our rise above, we've abandoned what allows us to exist here in the first place.

Labels: Nature, wildlife

We visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota over the weekend. The gardens emphasis is on epiphytes- plants that live upon other plants, such as orchids, bromeliads and gesneriads. Since it's been said somewhere that you can grow anything down here (FL), it was extrememly inspirational to us thinking about Gottfried. She had many banyan trees which they were training to arch over walkways. All the mangroves along the water remained. She also incorporated bamboo along parts of the perimeter to block out the expanding development of Sarasota which she began to notice in the 70's. Where we are on the creek we look out over islands of mangroves along with the ones that grow all along the bank. We are hoping this keeps a feeling of sanctuary down by the water in the years to come. The history is very charming but ironically her husband made his fortunes in oil and mining industries. She was very forward thinking when she left her pristine property for use as gardens and research open to the public. You can bet it would be towering condos otherwise.

Labels: Nature

In FL we will also try to gain points for the FSBC, Florida Green Building Coalition's green building standards. The also offer a checklist which, at a glance, I know we have some of the easier ones covered like rainwater harvesting, solar water heating and native landscaping etc.

Labels: FGBC

The NY Times highlights a green home in Mount Hood, OR. I was actually surprised to learn that there aren't more LEED certified green homes in the country. There are hundreds of applications in the works, however. Some other things I learned were the added benefits of net-metered solar. "Some green-built homes do not tap the local utility grid at all. But many experts argue that being on the grid is actually a greener practice. Tapping into already-built power and water systems takes fewer resources than, say, maintaining new generators and batteries for solar energy systems." We are going to be sizing up our design to the LEED checklist and see where we stand so far.

Labels: design

We tried to keep the sq footage low. Right now this falls around 2100 sq ft. With the open air space angled to the point, the house overall is going to be a great mix of indoor and outdoor space.

Labels: floorplan

Our architects, Osborn Sharp Associates, really came through. It was better than we imagined. Some of the hardcore green technology full solar and complete grey water system will be added on down the road but the passive, sustainable design uses the sun, rain and breeze to its advantage and ours. I think it is a good start.

Labels: floorplan