Environmental Design + Construction - October 2008 - (Page 69) SUSTAINABLE HOME I n Springfield, Mo., during the summer of 2005, four Drury University faculty and staff members met with staff from the local Habitat for Humanity chapter to discuss the possibility of Drury sponsoring, designing and building a sustainable house for Habitat. The idea was to make it a part of Drury’s greater annual event: its convocation lecture series. After a year and a half of planning and fundraising, third-year architecture students, under my direction began to design the sustainable home. Round two of the design came a year later in the spring of 2008 when fifthyear architecture students developed and built what became the first LEED Platinum certified home for Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat currently builds in a somewhat sustainable manner simply by constructing efficient, small-footprint homes. The organization’s no-frills, low-cost homes — which require homeowners to contribute sweat equity — and its no-interest payment programs help provide homeownership opportunities to families who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to purchase a home. Key to the program is keeping construction costs down. With the help, guidance and a leap of faith, the Springfield chapter allowed the Drury University students to explore, experiment and push the guidelines of a standard four-bedroom Habitat home. PROCESS AND DESIGN We began the design process with the site and the form. The class researched prevailing winds and sun angles for our area and did a site analysis at Legacy Trails, a lowimpact Habitat for Humanity subdivision. Responding to that data, the students elongated the home in the east/west direction to create an opportunity to use the southern exposure. This captures prevailing winds in the spring and fall and maximizes radiant heat gain in the winter. It also allowed us to address the separation of vehicular and pedestrian circulation located in the green spaces of the development. The home’s form takes its shape from the sun, wind and site, as well as from the restrictions and requirements of a Habitat fourbedroom home; it also has a nod to the typical building style in the area. The floor plan separates public spaces from private spaces. Bedrooms are stacked and located on the east side of the home while the living room, kitchen and dining room are on the west side. The northern entry occurs at the intersection of the two spaces; it connects the second floor by way of a stair and a catwalk. To save space and stay within Habitat’s size restrictions, half of the kitchen cabinets are integrated into the staircase. The cabinets’ face rises to become the handrails of the staircase, which creates storage spaces in the lower areas. The rising staircase provides space for cabinets, countertops, a range and refrigerator at the high end of the room. By integrating the cabi- An open, airy feel is created by combining functions, like the cabinets blending with the stairwell. Photo by Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks. nets with the handrail, that side of the kitchen becomes like a large built-in piece of furniture. The higher volume over the living, kitchen and dining allow air to enter low on the southern side of the home, where prevailing winds arrive. As the air heats, it rises and exits through high windows on the northern side of the home. This allows the homeowner to cool the space for a longer period of time in the spring, summer and fall without the use of mechanical ventilation. To control heat gain in the summer and capture solar heat in the winter, the roof is pulled past the edge of the southern wall to an optimum solar point. From this point, the roof angles back to the same wall to give aesthetic appeal to the home. This innovative device shades the large southern windows from the hot summer sun and allows the sun to hit the thermal mass of the water-based stained concrete floor to collect and store radiant heat in the winter. OCTOBER 2008 The design allows for air to enter from the south, cool the house, and exit via windows on the home’s northern side. Photo by Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks. SUSTAINABLE HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY Thirty solar tubes on the roof provide 70 percent of the energy needed to run the radiant floor heat system and the domestic water heater. A backup tankless water heater makes up the other 30 percent. A 14 SEER heat pump provides cooling in peak summer months. All of this is contained in an Icynene spray foam thermal envelope within the walls and roof deck. From the ground up, sustainable, recycled, recyclable and environmentally friendly materials were used where possible. The landscaping is comprised of 100 percent native grasses and plants. Two rain gardens 69
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