Project Gallery
Honey I Shrank My Ecological Footprint!
Summary
In-fill housing uses good design to get the most house into less space.
Description
When Nora and Tien traded-in their single family home in the Renton suburbs for a BUILT GREEN townhouse in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood, they had no idea how much their ecological footprint would shrink. Their new home is one of four units recently developed by Greenleaf Construction on a previously single family lot. The efficient layout of their 1,100 square foot compact home includes three bedrooms and two and a half baths.
Features
SITE
Rain barrel
No garage, pervious paving carport in alley
No lawn and drought tolerant native plants
ENERGY
No furnace but a unique heat-recovery ventilator and Fresh Air Fireplace
Energy Star appliances
Advanced wall framing to reduce thermal bridging
No Air Conditioning
AIR
Every window opens!
Low-VOC/low-toxic paints and finishes
Wool carpets to naturally resist allergens
MATERIALS
Bamboo (rapidly renewable) flooring throughout main floor
Diverted 80% of construction waste from landfill
Use of salvaged and recycled materials
Flyash in concrete
Composite decking
Specs
How much did our ecological footprint shrink?(click picture for www.myfootprint.org) To compare the impact of our lifestyle change, we took the ecological quiz and came up with surprising results. The national average is 24 acres. Our footprint while living in Renton was a respectable 21 acres. Given our new lifestyle however, our draw on the earth's natural resources became 9 acres when we moved into our Built Green home in Seattle!