GreenForms House

In designing the core for the dry-in house, finding green solutions gets difficult because it seems that these environmentally conscience materials come with a high price. A project in Austin, Texas sparked my interest, which shows a direct relation to the project we are working on now. In regards to eco-construction, Pliny Fisk has developed an eco-house that "grows" incrementally with the intended ease of an erector set.

The GreenForms house is constructed with simple post-and-beam framework made of recycled steel. The first prototypes have walls of pressed straw paneling, widely available in Texas. In other ecological and industrial zones, different recycled-content, pressed-panel materials such as sawdust/cement composites and nontoxic, recycled styrofoam might be used, says Fisk. All elements of the house, he adds, can be assembled with simple hand tools. Like the Dry-in House, the GreenForms house comes with a core, approximately 256 square feet made of a solar hot-water heater and air collector for passive heating, a radiant barrier system in the roof for venting of summer heat, and high re-radiating roof paints. Also for heating and cooling, a pipe snakes underneath a "very good looking" earthen floor of soil stabilized with cement, explains Fisk. It connects to a ground-source heat pump system buried, together with the waste-water system, in the yard..
The kitchen is also unique, acting as a "chunk," since it is completely mobile. On hot summer days it is able to be moved outside in a breezeway if desired. The cost estimate for ranges between $8,000-$10,000, with additional bedrooms estimated at $4000 each whenever the homeowner decides to make additions. The central idea behind the design is flexibility for the homeowner- allowing the expansion of the home to be made as the homeowner saves money, which potentially frees them from a punishing mortgage.