Recent Articles

Fantasy furniture

If you're in the market for a new dining room set or coffee table but can't afford furniture store prices, look no further than the model home furnishings sale taking place next Saturday in Kearny Mesa from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. And even better, whatever you spend goes for a good cause. The one-day “furniture fantasy sale,” as it's called, is sponsored by BIA Cares, the charitable arm of the San Diego County Building Industry Association. » More

Making it personal

Whether you're a fashionista who considers “Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively your idol, an eco-friendly student who thinks Al Gore is “the man” or a dude who decorates with books, you can find the back-to-dorm decor that reflects your personality and tastes. The choices are more varied than ever in this year's crop of cool stuff to trick out your dorm room and turn it into a sweet space.
» More

Smart living, Chicago style

By Carl Larsen

CHICAGO – For years, this city has been comfortable with setting architectural firsts.

It was here that the first skyscraper was built and where Frank Lloyd Wright spent his formative years mastering a profession that he went on to turn upside down with an early appreciation for the natural environment. Later, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, working here, pioneered the path toward Modernism. And in the city's neighborhoods, thousands of bungalows stand as a sacrosanct form of housing.

Now, visitors as well as Chicagoans can look to a new architectural future.

The city's Museum of Science and Industry is presenting a 2,500-square-foot smart home assembled on its grounds that features the latest in sustainable residential design and construction.

It's the first full-size house built at the museum since one of Wright's Usonian homes, a prototype for mass housing, was erected as a temporary exhibit in 1989. Built amid an outdoor garden, the smart home has been drawing thousands of visitors willing to pay an extra fee since it opened in May.

Designed by California architect Michelle Kaufmann, who's based in Oakland, the home was created for an Upper Midwest environment and the narrow Chicago-size lots similar to those in San Diego. Kaufmann, a leader in sustainable architectural design, said the house would work equally as well in Southern California.

Through its use of products now in the marketplace, the house exhibits what sustainable living encompasses, and shows a path to a future resource-efficient world that, given a stronger push, is possible to achieve today.

“The mission is to make sustainable design accessible – to get the cost down, and to build in volume,” Kaufmann said. Her office estimated the construction cost at $450,000 to $500,000, not counting the land cost.

The home is built around five principles: smart design, material efficiency, energy efficiency, water efficiency and a healthy environment.

To achieve these goals economically, Kaufmann is a believer in prefab construction, where homes are built in modular units at factories and then erected on a site. The smart house was constructed by All American Homes in Decatur, Ind., and then transported to the museum, where it was assembled.

Such construction results in a house that can be built 60 percent faster than site-built homes, and with a sizable reduction in waste, particularly in lumber. Drywall scrap for the home was trucked from the factory to nearby farms as a soil base, keeping it out of landfills.

On the first floor, the home features a living room, lounge, kitchen, powder room and dining area, as well as a “mechanical room.” The second floor has two bathrooms, a master bedroom, child's bedroom and office.

A third floor, with a solarium, leads to an outdoor deck and gives access to a system of planters making up a green roof and to the solar-power collectors. They are a roll-out matlike system similar to a carpet, which can function even with a dusting of snow on top.

On the ground level, a separate garage (with a Honda Civic hybrid inside) connects to the house by a trellised passageway.

The home's automated systems include real-time monitoring of energy consumption that compares daily use of gas, water and electricity to yesterday and last month. When the owners go on vacation, a shutdown mode puts the home into hibernation.

Visitors first enter the living room where a foldable glass wall opens to an outdoor deck. On its outside, the home is clad in ipe, a fire-resistant South American wood that resists rot, decay, mold and insects and which is harvested from a naturally sustainable forest.

There are some subtle tweaks at our profligate lifestyles. Over the dining table, a chandelier is made of discarded, colored incandescent light bulbs. And a nearby couch is covered in fabric made of recycled T-shirts. The dining table is made of wood from a fallen tree and is surrounded by chairs found in a thrift shop. A mohair rug has a backing made from recycled coffee bean bags.

And there are some gee-whiz products, resulting from an exhibit partnership with Wired magazine. As an example, digital sensors in the garden give owners a call when plants need water (by Botanicalls).

When the doorbell rings, a touch-screen monitor captures a wireless video feed from the front entry.

And, the day begins when The LifeWare automation system clicks on lights, raises shades and cues up wake-up music from a NuVo digital music server. Above, a motorized skylight senses when the weather is just right for it to open.

Kitchen counters are composed of EcoTop, a biocomposite product that is a blend of recycled wood fiber from demolition sites bonded with a water-based resin that is petroleum-free.

And the fireplace (Ecosmart Vision vent-free) burns renewable ethanol, not fossil fuels.

Even the dishes and glassware are made of 100 percent recycled glass, while place mats are made from sustainable water hyacinths. The NatureMill automatic indoor composter in the kitchen can divert 2 tons of waste from landfills over its life.

On the second floor is flooring made from quick-growing bamboo (by Teragren).

Concerned with indoor air quality, Kaufmann emphasized the home's use of no-VOC or low-VOC (for volatile organic compounds) products such as paints, glues, window coverings and carpets that minimize the release of gases into the interior environment.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the home in giving it its smart label is the automation system, featuring an energy dashboard (by Lucid Design Group) that allows real-time monitoring of energy consumption.

“By seeing in real time how our behavior impacts energy and water usage, we can see how doing laundry at night can save money on our power,” said Kaufmann. “We don't have that information in our homes now.”

Kaufmann, who grew up in Iowa, is thrilled with the prospect that the house might speed the adoption of sustainable living materials and concepts.

Even as the housing market has slowed, she said, “green building” is moving forward.

“I think it's just the opposite. The housing market is tanking, but we're busier than we've ever been. Green building is on the rise.”

The reason, she said, is “we have to rethink how we do things. Oil prices are up. It forces more people to look at ways of saving and conserving. It fits well.”

And her Chicago house?

“It helps set up for a perfect story,” she said.

It's unclear what will happen to the home after the exhibit is scheduled to end in January, but there's always a chance it may remain.

“I hope they'll keep it there for a long time,” Kaufmann said.

Carl Larsen is a former editor of the Union-Tribune Home section.