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Green is Beautiful in New Home Designs

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Photos Credit: The Plan Collection

Modern home design may not look modern at all, with much of it taking inspiration from Victorian or English countryside themes. Some of the more interesting homes incorporate artistic architectural elements of 1920s extravagance. What’s completely new, however, is a focus on smart technology and green design elements that are now bringing those stately architectural wonders into the 21st century. What many prospective home buyers (and even some architects) don’t realize is that “green,” “smart,” and “big” are not mutually exclusive, and that “green” does not have to mean giving up size, style, or the graceful amenities that adorn some of the most beautiful and prestigious homes in the country.

“In many of today’s newly-built homes, smart technology is a given,” said Brian Toolan, co-founder and CEO of TPC Interactive, a web-based business focused on growing a digital media platform in the home construction, remodeling, and design sectors. The company currently operates under The Plan Collection and Houseplans.info. “Home builders have long understood that smart technology is also green technology, and those smart components aren’t just there to offer convenience—they also save a tremendous amount of energy. What’s even more relevant is that ‘green’ doesn’t mean giving up anything in terms of convenience, luxury, or size. You really can have it all.”

The Plan Collection

Go Green, Go Large

The “tiny home” movement delivers homes that are inherently green because they use less energy simply due to their size. These increasingly stylish homes may be well-suited for single homeowners. Those who want something bigger need not feel guilty for wanting a few thousand square feet to wander around in. “You can work towards a greener large home,” said Douglas VanderHorn, an award-winning architect from Greenwich, Connecticut with a focus on classical design. “I think that our clientele has some sense of obligation to incorporate green elements into the home because they are building larger.”

Use of reclaimed or recycled materials is increasingly becoming a stylish addition to some of the most stately homes in the country, and some of those reclaimed materials add a sense of architectural flair that cannot be replicated with new materials. Needless to say, use of reclaimed materials is a decidedly green approach to building a home of any size. “We encourage the use of reclaimed material,” said VanderHorn. “We recently completed a home that incorporated a lot of reclaimed barn timber, some reclaimed brick and also some architectural artifacts like an old marble sink and mantelpieces. You honestly can’t duplicate the beautiful character of things that are crafted by hand. We’re not doing it purely to save money—it just looks better.”

Toolan agrees that reclaimed materials is one of the easiest ways to construct a green-centered home. “You’re saving those reclaimed materials from the landfill, and that’s a big environmental plus,” said Toolan. “More architects are beginning to see the advantage, also from a design standpoint, of incorporating some of these beautiful, hand-crafted elements into standard home plans.”

The Plan Collection

Energy-Efficient Designs

“Energy-efficient house plans introduce energy saving designs from the very beginning,” said Toolan. “Many incorporate simpler designs and make use of every square foot of the home to reduce waste without sacrificing style and comfort. A few of the more common energy-efficient design elements include larger windows, or even an entire wall of windows, which makes use of natural lighting or strategically placed overhangs to provide shade and help cool the home in the summer.”

Beyond the design itself and reclaimed materials, some of the most impressive green elements that are being incorporated into homes today include geothermal heat pumps, which take advantage of the earth’s consistent 55 degree temperature, and use that for air conditioning as well as heating in the winter. “Another tremendous advance is LED lighting,” said VanderHorn. “The light bulb has hardly changed in 100 years, until the advent of light emitting diodes. Now almost every light we put into our homes are LED. That’s a dramatic change considering they use about 70 percent less electricity.”

Other green design components include spray foam, which dramatically improves the thermal and air infiltration properties of a home, as well as energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), which bring fresh air into the home and exchange the heat from the interior to the exterior to minimize energy loss. “We’ve also been incorporating co-generation systems,” said VanderHorn, “Which are mini electrical plants in the home. They burn natural gas which is very inexpensive, and generate electricity 24/7 so when the occupants are asleep and not using much electricity, the meter on the house is literally going backwards. This little electrical plant is surrounded with water coils, which takes the heat from the process and recaptures it for domestic hot water and heating swimming pools. It’s these green technologies that are the hottest innovations.”

Finally, simply building classically-styled homes with a timeless look is in itself a green approach. “The work we do is classic in nature,” said VanderHorn. “Our designs are based on historic precedent, and most people can really identify with them. We like our work to not be dated, so I love it when people think that we’ve renovated an older home even though it’s new. The greenest building is one that won’t soon be demolished.”

Roman Kowalski

A fashion-conscious male who carries a city bag (no, really, it's not a purse!), Roman Kowalski has enjoyed sampling everything from fermented herring in Sweden, to red ant eggs in Thailand. His favorite cities in the world are Krakow, Bangkok and Macau, and he currently lives in Indiana with his wife Lula and their French bulldog, Pola. ...(Read More)

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