Green in the UK - ZEDFactory Ltd.
The UK is one country that's really, really caught the bug when it comes to green building. The nation appears poised to take a real leadership role, and there's a lot of great stuff happening there. It tends to be a little groovier, and usually a whole lot greener, than what's coming out of the USA. Not that we don't have great stuff here - we do - but I like what I see the Brits doing.
Here's a great example of the UK's finest: ZEDfactory Ltd. ZED stands for Zero (fossil) Energy Development. The firm does everything from urban design and master planning to multi-family residences to individual homes to eco-refurb to landscaping. Everything is low energy / low impact.
In the HomeZED, timberframe construction is combined with high thermal mass and heavy insulation. Passive strategies compliment the construction methods for simple, natural heating and cooling. The home has ample daylighting, and produces more than its own energy needs via renewable energy sources and sells the excess back to the grid. Prototypes are already being built. I think a HomeZED would be well suited to our climate here in southeast Michigan , and I could definitely see myself living in one.
Here are two other examples of ZED's great green homes:
The stunning, earth sheltered "Bath Springs" house (I'd move in here in a heartbeat).
The RuralZED Carbon Neutral Kit Home - a timberframe kit house with "fully integrated renewable micro-generation technology." These houses are highly flexible and can be built by the DIY types, or by developers who choose to combine them into multi-family units.
Shouldn't every neighborhood look more like that? I really like what ZED is doing. Their homes look very practical. I think this is what the future of green design really looks like - affordable and realistic, yet not sacrificing in sustainability. Something that is adaptable to differing development scenarios. I hope to see more work like theirs here in the United States.
Image credits - ZEDfactory Ltd. site
3 comment(s):
Oh man! I want a propeller on my roof so bad I can taste it.
I am VERY far from being a greenie, but the idea of all that technology on my house turns me on. I too would love a propeller on my house.
A propeller on the roof of a house is kind of like a propeller on a beanie hat - it gives you a sort of cheerful irreverance. Those kids in the old movies always looked a little dorky, but highly satisfied (with ice cream smeared all over their faces). I liked those kids.
Post a Comment