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The Showhouse That Sustainability Built
by Barnaby J. Feder

Eric Doub knows the difference between talking about building a green home and living in one: more than 2,600 energy-conscious visitors have traipsed through his model home in the last two and a half years.

Four years ago, Mr. Doub, the owner of Ecofutures Building in Boulder, Colo., was one of a growing number of builders intent on designing environmental sustainability into new homes and retrofitted projects. But clients willing to go all out for energy-efficient design and materials were scarce. And on a personal level, certain restrictions in the north Boulder development in which he and his wife, Catherine Childs, lived with their two young children hampered his ability to practice what he preached.

Then Ms. Childs discovered a large lot nearby where they could build their dream house – a house to prove that comfort, and even touches of luxury like a hot tub, did not have to be sacrificed to do right by the environment.

The $1.38 million project (including the land purchase) became a huge financial gamble. Mr. Doub had to cut loose 10 employees – 40 percent of his work force – and Ecofutures took on debt for the first time. But by late November 2005, the family was able to move into the five-bedroom, two-story model home they named Solar Harvest.

It used available technology and, when possible, salvaged materials. Mr. Doub bought 12 used solar panels to heat water for the heating system; the 6,000-gallon underground hot-water tank came from a dairy farm.

Some of the biggest benefits came from choices that did not cost money per se, like having the front of the house face south to take maximum advantage of the sun. But other choices, like installing superinsulated windows and solar electric roof panels, added 8 percent to the cost, Mr. Doub said.

It did not take long for the gamble to begin paying off. In its first year, Solar Harvest fed enough energy into the local power grid during sunny spells to offset the cost of all the power it used other times. A copy of the $8.45 check that Xcel Energy, the utility, sent to settle 2006 accounts sits framed on the dining room table.

Mr. Doub especially enjoyed the tour he offered to 15 local land-use officials one day in early February 2007, when the temperature outside read just about zero. As usual, the indoor temperatures ranged in the high 60s despite the lack of any heat source other than the water tank and air circulating from the tightly insulated sun porch.

Even better, the home began attracting clients like Ronald M. Abramson, the president and chief executive of NexGen Energy Partners, an investment group focused on renewable energy projects, which Mr. Abramson recently moved from Maryland to Boulder. He worked with Mr. Doub for six months to develop plans for a 7,000-square-foot home for him and his family on a stretch of prairie near Lyons, not far from Boulder.

“We wanted to build the most environmentally responsible home in the country,” Mr. Abramson said.

Mr. Doub’s design for the Abramsons includes a combination of wind and solar power that is expected to generate 80 percent more energy than the house will require when it is finished early next year. And, with strict attention to the materials used and their environmental impact, the Abramsons think they can balance their carbon dioxide emissions and reductions.

Carbon neutral or not, the Abramson home is the first to meet new Boulder County regulations that set a sliding scale of permitted energy use, based on size. At the top of the scale, all new homes of more than 5,000 square feet must be energy neutral, generating as much as they use. County officials credit Solar Harvest with drawing support for the new regulations.

“We needed to be able to see some homes that were close to net-zero energy in Boulder County,” said Will Toor, a county commissioner. “Eric’s was the first, and that helped convince people it was feasible at a modest additional cost.”

Mr. Doub said that the smaller the home, the more challenging it can be to achieve a zero energy design because of the higher ratio of walls to interior space. Thus, Mr. Doub said, his work is in some respects less impressive than the single-story 1,130 square foot zero-energy home Habitat for Humanity built in 2005 in nearby Wheat Ridge with help from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The several new Ecofutures projects begun since Solar Harvest was completed have come in at 7 percent to 9 percent above standard building costs, Mr. Doub said. He said that he continued to tinker with Solar Harvest, which cost $987,000 to build. During the unusually cold winter of 2006-7, the solar heating system proved inadequate, so he installed backup electrical heating. He also installed air-conditioning after finding that the only way to do without it in the summer was to wake people on the south side of the house at 5:30 a.m. to close windows before the sun came up.

Last fall, the family replaced its gas appliances with electric ones, partly to make Solar Harvest more representative of homes in the future. He said he expected natural gas prices to continue to rise, driving consumers to electric appliances.

Now That’s A Waterfront
by Gwen McAuley

Nestled in Southeast Asia, the islands of Malaysia proudly showcase two of the tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Putrajaya is the waterfront 30 kilometres south of the capital, and it’s about to step into the architectural limelight. Studio Nicoletti, based out of Rome, Italy, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Hijjas Kasturi Associates have been busy designing a series of eight sustainable towers for a new residential waterfront development at Precinct 4, to be completed by 2010.

Putrajaya lies on a stretch of Malaysia between Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It will eventually be the most accessible city in Malaysia, surrounded by expressways, urban highways and railways. But the city planners aren’t letting their urban future stomp on their greenery. Planned by Hijjas Kasturi Associates, Putrajaya has been tagged “The Garden City” because of its preservation of existing eco features and plan to set aside a third of its area for lush greenery, gardens and parks.

Studio Nicoletti Associati won a competition to design Precinct 4, an area of Putrajaya formed along with the massive artificial lake and several other islands by flooding a palm plantation. Studio Nicoletti used this lakeside playground as inspiration for the buildings, designing the development of eight fleet-like ships to compliment the newly formed landscape.

In a recent article on ArabianBusiness.com (by James Boley, posted on March 19/08) about the development’s sustainability, Manfredi Nicoletti elaborated on his vision: “Designing an iconic residential development for Putrajaya requires a rethink to what makes Putrajaya unique in the context to the world. The building should have a uniqueness that tells of its place of origin, which is culturally modern, Islamic and tropical in nature. This group of houses is on the artificial lake, so we conceived a complex of elements like a fleet, each one inspired by a boat.”

Nicoletti means what he says. Unlike cargo ships, the roof gardens come equipped with pools, water massage tubs, bars, cafes and lounging areas to soak up the Malaysian sun. The recently approved master plan ducks under the area’s height restriction with varying tower heights of 15-18 stories to compliment the horizon. The number of units in each tower ranges from 150 to 350. The towers are arranged in a permeable, radiating block of bioclimatic architecture new to this area of Malaysia.

A light brise-soleil skin connected to the vertical pillars protects each unit and controls the amount of daylight coming in without compromising the expansive lake views. Studio Nicoletti included sustainable strategies like terraces, sunshades, natural ventilation and integrated green space in their design. The towers will use alternative energy and are expected to produce 50% less CO2 emissions than similar residential projects.

Carbon reduction measures include the use of community energy, CHP, a surface water heat pump coupled with the lake and wind turbines and low energy lighting. The interior will be decked out with water-efficient dishwashers and washing machines and the water system will use recycled rainwater. All timber used in construction has been MTCC/FSC certified and locally sourced materials have been given priority in building. The designers incorporated bicycle storage and paths throughout the property, as well as car clubs offering up hybrid vehicles. The towers are designed with waste sorting and recycling systems and biodiversity measures (e.g. roof gardens) in each tower to contribute to sustainability.

Studio Nicoletti included sustainable strategies like terraces, sunshades, natural ventilation and integrated green space in their design. The towers are intended to use alternative energy: the goal is to produce 50% less CO2 emissions than similar residential projects. In an attempt to maintain the Islamic culture of Malaysia, Studio Nicoletti used many Islamic design elements to appeal to Middle Eastern and Asian investors.

Studio Nicoletti’s focus throughout is on the relationship between the buildings and the waterfront. Islamic or not, Studio Nicoletti strongly believes that the waterfront planning should tie the boulevard buildings back to the waterfront. Permeable building blocks and smaller block sizes are intended to enhance the visual corridors and links between the boulevard and the waterfront, leading passersby by to the waterfront, and the transparency of the buildings is designed to further erase the distinction between land and water. In time, we will see what these ships can do.