Recently came upon this news of a couple who bought land in Spain and constructed a house that is completely off grid. The house is heated entirely by human waste and horse manure. Since a small family does not produce substantial amount of waste to create bio gas needed to heat the entire house year round, they have 4 horses that eat grass and make the bio gas needed for heating, hot water and cooking. The electricity is provided by solar roof panels and a mini wind turbine.

This is what the world needs more of today but of course, the conditions have to be ideal, like having enough sunshine, the community has to be co operative and in the end, it has to be cost effective too. More on this can be read here

The company that the house owners collaborated with is http://www.planetenergynow.com/
At this time, they have 3 models. Semi-Urban Neighbourhood, Rural Communities/off grid and Industrial or Technology Parks.

In Semi-Urban  neighbourhoods, it is very easy to produce a large amount of energy from the housing complex that people live in. The apartment units already have recycle and garbage disposal in place so to add energy production from human waste is a viable addition. And the benefits from this is shared by the households themselves so it is a direction they would be eager to go in.


How Planet EnergyNow operates is they evaluate the electricity and heat demands of each household and evaluate the organic waste produced by the households too. They assess the rooftop for solar and wind energy production and if the pros beat the cons, then it makes sense to adopt this and  you can make your own energy production!

For Rural Communities, the energy production is tailor made to the availability of resources, either for individual households or for communities to share in the production and supply of energy. They can also assist dairy farmers, agricultural storage units, hydroponic systems, green houses and other rural industries from producing energy from the waste they already have.


In Industrial or Technology Parks, the consumption of energy is much higher. But, so is the cost of waste disposal and/or treatment. What Planet Energy does is, they take into account every bit of waste in these industrial parks, be it the organic waste or from restaurants nearby and then they scout around, outside of the parks to see if there are agricultural operations in that area. Then, they match up the energy production from waste to the consumption, supplemented by solar panels or wind turbines if necessary. These are then connected by a hybrid inverter whose smart technology controls the power generation and distribution of the system.

Landscape tricks as sound barriers

No one appreciates the constant  rumble in the sky when trying to sleep or relax at home or work. But it is the unfortunate price to pay if you live close to an airport or work near one. One has to deal with similar noise problem near a highway or a busy road too.

While there are many obvious landscape solutions for buildings close to highways which can really block the sound considerably, airports being vast open spaces with runways that extends over many acres of land, no one has thought of actually trying to solve this problem by making physical changes, until now. Many airports in busy cities are considerate and don't let flights land or fly at odd hours. But. a recent article caught my eye about how a busy Schiphol airport in Amsterdam is trying to reduce sound near the airport by innovative solutions created in the landscape around the runways. More on the article here

More on the common noise blockers can be seen here and a great article by the Georgia Forest Commission about Green Buffers for screening and noise reduction can be read here

Back after a long break.....

There are so many different movements out there to build small, to build efficiently, to have smaller carbon foot prints, to leave behind a better planet for future generations, to be less materialistic, more holistic, more tuned with nature and so on.

The reasoning is different for different people but almost all of it leads to a better world. The less resources we use, the less we waste and so the more we leave behind.

The movement of tiny homes around the globe is gaining momentum. There are many blogs in the cyber world explaining how to build and where to source. But, most of the packages cost more than they are worth. This almost beats the purpose, doesn't it? There are container homes too, made out of shipping containers. That's a topic for another day.

I came across another kind of tiny home made out of wooden shipping pallets. these can be made for immediate shelter in disaster struck areas or where it's difficult to build a conventional house. The link for this is here

We have all heard about solar energy as the alternate source of energy for a very long time. The first thing that comes to mind when talking of solar energy in building use is seeing solar panels mounted on roof tops of large buildings and even some residences. There is no thought of conserving energy, just an alternate source. But, today, we are going to talk of passive solar energy which takes advantage of the site, climate and materials to consider for solar energy to minimize energy use. There is no point in changing the source of our energy from electric or gas or oil to solar and being lavish in using the energy by giving no thought to the site, materials or other elements. It defeats the purpose of conserving energy and being green.

Energy.gov government website gives details on how to design a home with passive solar energy, complete with details on how and where to place the building, the direction in which you will get the most unobstructed solar heat, thus keeping your home or building comfortable all through the year and reducing heating and cooling costs to almost half the typical cost of cooling and heating.
Detailed instructions and information on passive solar energy can be obtained here

All of us have different tastes and preferences in styles, be it in construction, dressing or eating. Where the latter two and most of our other likes deal with things we experience first hand, construction preference is a lot more complex.
When we say we like a building, we usually mean the facade or the external beauty. It can go further when we love the interior too. But, are we really looking at the structure in depth before we say we like it? Do we see if the function is optimized fully before we comment? Very often, the answer is no
A great series on BBC by an architect questions the need for architects to go back and look at their building after the occupants start using it. They can then see what kind of problems exist, they can assess them and then try and improve them.Even the structures of some of the very famous architects have problems that have never been addressed.
The 2nd video talks about old and forgotten structures that are converted containers or makeshift structures that have eventually become permanent.
The  video is a six-part BBC documentary on architecture by Stewart Brand that actually turns current architectural practice on its head and can be watched here.

Wood is, by far one of the most sustainable building materials that has been used since the onset of building construction. Today, there are so many commercially made products which are ruining the environment and directly or indirectly, creating more problems than solutions for the inhabitants and surroundings.
Use of wood for building industry is also strongly supported by the US Forest Service.
The Forest Service would like to stress that to enhance the environment, life cycle analysis have to be promoted in building codes and standards. Read more here


When we talk of sustainable building project, what constitutes sustainability?
There are some fundamental thumb rules to sustainable building: siting and structural design, energy efficiency, material efficiency, indoor environmental quality; operations and maintenance; and waste reduction. Sustainable practices and technologies are constantly evolving and may differ from region to region and so it is difficult to standardise that.
 A great article in the Architectural Record on material efficiency and what the relevance of wood is to sustainable design in the context of environmental, social and economic factors. Read more here

The toughest thing for any parent to endure is seeing their child being ill. And if it is a prolonged illness with very long stays in the hospital, this can add excess stress over the already exhausted family. The drab walls, uncomfortable chairs and cold corridors provide little comfort to the sick child or their families. But a lot is changing now with many hospitals transforming their facilities to accommodate the needs of the families with more private rooms, comfortable sofa-beds and noise reduction  through a voluntary but very influential non profit organisation called Families Guidelines Institute that helps federal agencies regulate the design and construction of health care buildings. Read more here