Tip-toeing to the tipping point of sustainable buildings and a solar future. That’s one way to describe current activity in local construction.
While most homes and commercial buildings constructed over the past few years rarely go above mandated codes for energy efficiency, some daring developers are pushing the envelope.
Taking risks. Using innovative building practices. Sketching the promise of near-Zero Energy construction for the Georgia coast.
“I’m a plant man.” That’s not only a definition of himself, it also defines Gregg Bayard’s philosophy. A burly former forester and horticulturist, comfortable under a fine patina of dust from a roadway under construction, he and his business partner Curry Wadsworth, with 20 years experience as a landscaper, are turning a heavily wooded, former fishing camp on Salt Creek into a housing development overlooking — and preserving — the marsh. (more…)
The concept of the house is ventilation and having air moving through it at all times,” said Jaliya Ratnayake, Chartered Architect explaining his design. Located in Battaramulla, only high walls can be seen to the outside but once within the courtyards and large open window spaces has given this home the open feel of the tropics.
The main entrance leads directly in to a small garden through which is the main lobby, “so that visitors will not walk right in to the house but have a small reception,” he explained. An inner glimpse of the house is obtained from a passageway common to the service entrance as well as the guest bedroom, leads to the main house. The central courtyard is adjoined by a small pond on one side and connects the house to the outside.
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Ami Baxter and Leanne Pergande know there’s more to interior design than picking out wallpaper.
Baxter and Pergande moved beyond the home decorating aspect of interior design when they launched their Fargo firm, Firefly Designs, two years ago.
The duo offers event design and event coordinating – an arena that includes creating an event’s concept with invitations, centerpieces, invitations, party favors and other design elements. (more…)
From a Marie Antoinette-themed room with faux python-covered walls to a monochromatic treescape mural depicting a misty morning dawn-themed hallway, designers from New York City to Greenwich unveiled their latest styles yesterday for the first-ever designer showhouse to benefit Greenwich Hospital.
A 10,000-square-foot 1928 French-manor-style mansion at 200 Stanwich Road got a complete makeover by 17 designers, a photographer and a muralist. Each designer was free to paint the walls, create moldings, bring in new furniture and paintings, redesign the windows, and even decorate the terrace to feature their work and create a new look for the traditional house.
Some of the designers made dramatic changes to their spaces. Some of the rooms of the dwelling went from family rooms to chic living spaces. The owners of the home, Richard and Ginna Kelly, have relocated while the Greenwich Designer Showhouse is being held. (more…)
Driven by technological advances in transparent building facades and the general motivation for high quality green buildings, facade design alternatives have shifted to utilizing dynamic fenestration and shading systems for optimal control of daylight and solar gains. The concept of dynamic facades (installing controllable elements on the building envelope) is not new; however, it is only during the last few years that architects and engineers have started to trust these systems and use them in buildings.
Dynamic building envelopes include advanced window technologies, innovative fenestration systems and automated shading control, all of which characterize the new “intelligent” buildings generation (together with efficient HVAC control systems). Although a great idea, the design and implementation of such systems is a quite complex task.
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