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Build It Green-Part 1

Kendra Pierre-Louis | Monday 9th November 2009

LEED certification has rapidly spread as the standard of green building. It provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using sustainability strategies including: reduced energy use, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and environmental stewardship of resources. LEED certified buildings often incorporate recycled materials, solar panels, low VOC paint and other modern sustainable sensibilities to help reduce the building's environmental footprint. When one considers that buildings are responsible for 48% of global greenhouse gas emissions, any attempts to reduce the negative environmental impact of buildings is a laudable step forward.

When it comes to green building design, however, LEED is not the only sustainable design on the block. LEED represents the cutting edge of sustainable building design - perfect for larger developers or individuals with deep pockets Heartst Tower

. For the rest of us, however, our options are not merely go super green or go toxic. There are other equally sustainable and gentler on the pocket building options. I am going to spend today and Wednesday profiling some of these other green (or greener) ways of building including taking a peek at building techniques such as rammed earth and cob construction. Next week we'll take a look at some of the laws and policies that hamper the development of these sustainable building techniques, and ways of changing, bending, and altogether circumventing these restrictions.

What's most interesting is that these alternative building designs do not represent a technological leap forward, but rather a technological leap back to where our ancestors had to learn to erect structures that could maintain a livable temperature without the climate modification abilities of fossil fuel based central heating and air conditioning. These ancient techniques, tweaked slightly for the modern era, are excellent options for the home builder and many can be used for broader applications such as schools and churches.

Rammed Earth is an ancient building technique in which soil mixtures are pounded into a form, as the mixture hardens the forms are removed and the resulting free standing structure forms the shell of the house. To visualize the process it's a bit like building sand castle, only instead of flipping the bucket the bucket has removable sides which pull away. Once everything is packed tightly, the forms are removed and what's left is a solid stable wall. The process is repeated until the entire house is complete.

This is a method of building construction with a long history - parts of the Great Wall of China were built using the rammed earth technique and are still standing over 2,000 years later. In addition, examples of rammed earth building are found all over Europe and churches, homes and other buildings can be found in the US from New York to Florida than

ks to the French and German immigrants who brought this style of building with them to the United States.

Beyond the inherent sustainability of the materials what makes a rammed earth construction uniquely 'green' is what also makes it stand out. The thick walls which usually run between 18 inches (45.7 cm) and 24 inches (61cm) contain excellent thermal mass rendering houses cool in summer without the need for air conditioner or a fan, and warm in winter without the need for much heating. Paired with passive solar design techniques which take into account the sun's different positions throughout the year, rammed earth homes use one-third as much energy as a conventional home, saving on energy bills.

The thick walls of rammed e

arth homes are also extremely fire-resistant because there are no flammable components in the earth and the materials have been packed so tightly there's little chance of combustion.They are termite proof because there is no wood, and rodent resistant because they don't offer any food sources for rodents. In short, rammed earth houses are one of the the simplest ways of building a responsible home.

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Kevin Long 9 November 2009

Really interesting Kendra, thanks for sharing - "these alternative building designs do not represent a technological leap forward, but rather a technological leap back to where our ancestors had to learn to erect structures"