Casa Patio – inside out
La Libertad, El Salvador – Cinco Patas al Gato The ingredients: A large empty lot, a good outlook, lots of stone and owners who are lovers of the outdoors. The result:  ​Built over four levels with the central garden as the focal point, Casa patio is an interesting blend of rustic contemporary.  Every room leads to […]
A House Among and Within the Loblolly Pines
 Loblolly House – Kieran Timberlake Location: Taylors Island, Maryland, USA Built area:  2,200 sq ft  (204 m2) Named after the tall pines that characterize its site on the Chesapeake Bay, this home “seeks to deeply fuse the natural elements of this barrier island to architectural form.” Positioned between a dense grove of loblolly pines […]
The Escarpment House
New South Wales, Australia – Timothy Moon Architects Photography: © Timothy Moon Architects The Australian Timber Development Association runs an annual competition for timber constructs.  This home is the 2011 winner of the following categories: The Recycled Timber Award, 2011 The Residential Class 1 – New Buildings Award, 2011 The Timber as a Structural Element Award, 2011 The Best Central […]
The Super Insulated House / Passivhaus (Part II)
Guest Blogger – Leonard Smit Welcome back to the land of the super-insulated home! Hopefully you’ve read Part 1 where I introduced the key principles of the Passivhaus, including its genesis during the ’70s as the Super Insulated house.  You have? Congratulations for getting this far, because – for a little while here, it gets […]
The Super Insulated House (Part 1)
Guest Blogger – Leonard Smit OMG!!! There’s a fly in the house!! True story – there was a fly in our house a few weeks ago. Y’know ….. those big, ugly, buzzy things? We don’t see them often any more, despite living in a semi-rural area with cows and sheep and other things that poo […]
Top 12 Tips: Low Carbon Building Design
Alex Bruce, co-founder at eTool I often get asked by home-owners and owner-builders what really makes the biggest difference to the carbon footprint of a home design. As you’ve probably experienced, the response can be pretty confusing when all you really want to know is “How do I build low carbon?!” So to make things […]
10 keys to ESD
These are some key points to consider for any good design. I first wrote this summary a few years ago but thought it might be of interest here. Although I wrote it based on my company’s principles, it happens to be well aligned to the principles of the Green Building Council as well. 1. Orientation  […]