BrightBuilt Monitoring

The May/June Residential Architect included a piece on the BrightBuilt Barn.  For those readers who have found their way here, monitoring information on the barn is currently house on our website at www.brightbuiltbarn.com

Another Tight One

Check out this article in the latest Journal of Light Construction, an excellent magazine for Home Builders and a source of great info for all residential architects and consultants as well. It is written by a local builder of all things sustainable and good, Dan Kolbert, and describes a recent project we completed together in Falmouth, Maine for our excellent clients, Stew MacLehose and Kathy Hayden. Kolbert is quickly becoming one of the top sustainable home builders in the region. He already has a LEED Gold and a LEED Platinum under his belt. Time to loosen that belt another notch, Dan...

This project is on track for LEED Platinum Certification. It features cellulose-filled, double stud walls, triple glazed windows and an exceptionally tight envelope in the range of BrightBuilt and Passivehouse (0.77 ACH5o). It has solar hot water and is slated to get some PV on the roof soon too.

We will soon make available live energy data on this project as well, in the same format as our BrightBuilt data, through our friends at Powerdash.

Dan Kolbert's website:

http://www.kolbertbuilding.com/

Details of the superinsulated structure:

DSIRE

This is a terrific website that lists all state incentive programs and policies that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

http://www.dsireusa.org/

Another LEED Platinum from KTA

Kaplan Thompson Architects, the team that designed BrightBuilt Barn, have recently been notified that their Metro Green project in Arlington, Virginia has been awarded LEED Platinum, the first LEED Platinum home in the state of Virginia.

Sited only 5 miles from the center of Washington DC, the structure has a whole wish list of green features, including a green roof and rainwater capture, in addition to solar electric energy and super-low heating costs.

Here's the link to a brief article about this home:

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/06/metro-green-home-leed-platinum-virginia.html

And here's the website of the builder:

http://www.metrogreenhome.com/

For only $1.175 million, this green dream home can be yours.

Pecha Kucha

Keith will be participating in Pecha Kucha night at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland on June 29.  

"Pecha what?" you say.  

Pecha Kucha (pronounced pe-chak-cha) is a presentation system begun by two young architects in 2003 to provide their peers with a format for presenting their work without droning on and on as we designer types are prone to do.  The strict format allows for 8-14 presenters to show exactly 20 slides for exactly 20 seconds each.  No more, no less.  Thus each person has the stage for exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds.   Pecha Kucha Nights are held all around the world now, in over 170 cities and Rockland, Maine is no exception.  

With so much to show and say about BrightBuilt, we commend Keith for taking on the challenge of boiling things down to the allotted time frame.  If you're in the area - don't miss the opportunity to see him present.  Pecha Kucha Nights are always fun filled evenings of artists and art appreciators - we highly recommend them.

Check out http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/event/pecha-kucha-night-live-wyeth-center

We Made the List

Eco Home Magazine has included BrightBuilt on its list of "6 Prefab Houses That Could Change Home Building."   In these times when more and more architects and builders are throwing their hats into this green prefab ring (and some not making it - see previous post), we are honored to have made it to the top of the list and be in company of some old favorites (Unity by Bensonwood) and some new (IKEA. SmartCarHouse).

http://www.ecohomemagazine.com/news/2009/may/6-prefab-houses-that-could-change-home-building.aspx?page=5

Premier green prefab firm closing its doors.

Yikes - Michelle Kaufmann has long been a leader in the green prefab industry and has fallen victim to current circumstances.  As newcomers to the green prefab world, we've been watching her closely - this news just underscores the challenges (and opportunities) ahead for us as we delve into this world.

Modern Prefab On The Ropes: Michelle Kaufmann Packs It In

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/michelle-kaufmann-packs-it-in.php

"A year ago I wrote that modern prefab had lived fast, died young and left a good looking corpse. But I thought if anyone would survive it would be Michelle Kaufmann, the queen of prefab design and marketing, who when I wrote her best of green award, said "an entire industry rides on her coat-tails."

When times were good, Michelle could not find factories to build her stuff; they were making too much money building crap. When the crap market dried up, so did they. Then the banking crisis delivered the final cut, and it is over."