For the past month or so I’ve been reading books and watching a series titled Building Green which documents California builder Kevin Contreras’ efforts to build his new dream house using green and sustainable building practices.
The series is a great overall primer to green building, although I have to admit that the green building practices mentioned (but not utilized) in the new house are often the most intriguing to me, such as earthen floors and rammed earth.
There is also a healthy dose of greenwashing going on with the actual house: the 4,000 square foot straw-bale "McMansion" that Contreras ultimately builds replaces a smaller house on the same large lot in the far-flung suburbs. The final house is similar to a home you’d see on a Builder Tour in Nuevo Tampa or Fishhawk Ranch (but much better designed), as opposed to a compact green and sustainable dwelling in a more sustainable context. As “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) is slowly learning, where something is built is as important as how it’s built.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.