Swamplot Archives by Category: Green Design and Development

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Green Sales Offices for Sale: Solar Powered Shipping Containers for Everyone

February 26, 2009 – 10:57 am

The solar-powered portable building fashioned from recycled shipping containers that’s been waiting patiently at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh since last September isn’t just the sales office for the Mirabeau B. condo. It’s also a prototype.

Designers Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana of Metalab have teamed up with ttweak Renewables (creators of the Mirabeau B.’s sales graphics) and Harvest Moon (the condo’s developer) to market the structures, which they call SPACE. That stands for Solar Powered Attractive Container for Everyone — though more likely it’ll be for companies that want a sales center that also works as a big green sign.

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10:57 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Buildings for Sale, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Office Space, Real Estate Marketing, Utilities
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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Where’s a Stinkin’ FEMA Trailer When You Need One?

February 19, 2009 – 12:07 pm
   

Trailer sculptor Paul Villinski, on the difficulty of procuring the raw material for his Emergency Response Studio, now on display at the Rice Art Gallery: “I thought, OK I’m going to go get a FEMA trailer, because they’re selling them online through the government - you know, the GAO Web site - at that very moment, it seemed, FEMA basically stopped releasing the trailers into the marketplace. And not only did they do that, they bought back all the ones that they had already sold. . . . And the back story with that is basically that the plaintiffs in this class-action suit need a couple of FEMA trailers so they can really study the indoor air quality and FEMA and the manufacturers do not want them to have them. So they’ve been ordered by the judge in the case to release the trailers, and they haven’t done it yet. So that made it impossible for me to actually get a FEMA trailer, which is why I wound up finding a 30-foot Gulfstream Cavalier, but it was built a couple of years before the FEMA trailers were.” [Arts in Houston; previously in Swamplot]

12:07 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Air Quality, Art, Attractions, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Manufactured Homes, Neighborhoods: Rice University, Quicklink
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Thursday, February 12, 2009

$99K House Series: Core House

February 12, 2009 – 11:26 am

Next featured entry to the $99K House Competition: This design from Houston’s Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects. The firm calls its design the Core House:

Like many of the existing homes in the Houston neighborhood, the CORE house is a compact, single story structure that uses pier and beam construction. The CORE house is powered by a “core” module, defined as an unchanging, narrow mechanical/plumbing spine. The body can be built to suit a family’s needs, while the CORE remains the same.

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11:26 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Houston Architects, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

$99K House Series: A Simple House

February 4, 2009 – 11:27 am

After a longish break, Swamplot returns with featured entries to the $99K House Competition. This design, from Houston’s Royse/Eagleton Architects, is called “A Simple House,” or ash:

ash is designed around three ideas.

1. To be as simple as possible in the building’s layout/function and construction in order to meet a construction budget of $75,000

At just over 1,200 square feet of conditioned space, ash is a small house. High volumes, an open layout, and connections to adjoining, exterior decks make the building feel much larger than its actual footprint.  The layout of the house is two volumes under a single shed roof. The smaller of the two volumes that contains the master is located on the front of the house, and frames a path to the building’s entry. The second volume is split into a private space with bedrooms and a public space that opens to an exterior deck that runs along the entire length of the building’s east side.

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11:27 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Houston Architects, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Monday, January 19, 2009

Hess It Is: Discovery Tower All Leased Up

January 19, 2009 – 1:04 pm

Hot off the Swamplot tipline: Discovery Tower, going up across McKinney St. from Discovery Green Downtown, has its first tenant — and it’ll be taking the whole building.

Beginning in late 2011 — about the time Hess’s current lease at One Allen Center expires — the 30-story tower with the wind turbines on top will be renamed Hess Tower.

After the jump, details from an email announcing the move — sent out to Hess Corporation employees late this morning:

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1:04 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Leasing, Neighborhoods: Downtown, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Recycled Glass Driveway at the Cordell Shipping Container House

January 14, 2009 – 11:19 am

Next experiment at that Swamplot-Award-winning house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith? The unique driveway installed earlier this week. John Walker of Numen Development writes in with details:

It is composed of recycled crushed glass, with a resin binder, and achieves the consistency of caramel popcorn for lack of a better description, so it has voids that allow surface water to percolate through the paving and ultimately be absorbed into the underlying soil rather than running off into the storm drainage system. It is a triple threat: recycled material, reduces environmental impact of development, and it’s really cool!

Walker says Presto Geosystems, a division of Alcoa, installed the driveway as a pilot project for the Houston market.

This installation has been described by their consulting engineer as most likely the “first and last” residential project they will do in Houston as the product is expected to meet with huge commercial demand, especially for “landlocked” developments for whom expansion is limited by Harris County stormwater detention limitations.

Some views of the installation:

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11:19 am | 14 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Flooding, Green Design and Development, Neighborhoods: Brookesmith
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Friday, January 9, 2009

Pimp My FEMA Trailer

January 9, 2009 – 11:12 am

A few months after Ike, this tricked-out FEMA trailer rolls into Houston as . . . art?? Paul Villinski’s reworked 30-ft. Gulfstream “Cavalier” trailer, which took the artist 7 months to mod, will be parked outside the Rice University Art Gallery starting later this month.

Re-born as the Emergency Response Studio, the trailer’s formaldehyde-ridden original materials are replaced by entirely “green” technology and building materials, including recycled denim insulation, bamboo cabinetry, compact fluorescent lighting, reclaimed wood, and natural linoleum floor tiles made from linseed oil. It is powered by eight mammoth batteries that store energy generated by an array of solar panels and a “micro” wind turbine atop a 40-foot high mast. Not only practical, Emergency Response Studio is a visually engaging structure with an expansive work area featuring a wall section that lowers to become a deck. A ten-foot, elliptical geodesic skylight allows extra headroom and natural lighting in the work area. Though designed as an artist’s studio and residence, Emergency Response Studio is an ingenious prototype for self-sufficient, solar-powered mobile housing.

Party on the back deck!

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11:12 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Alternative Energy, Art, Attractions, Disaster Aftermath, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Manufactured Homes, Temporary Housing, Utilities
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Monday, December 22, 2008

Coming to This Site: Haven

December 22, 2008 – 5:12 pm

The used-restaurant parts yard at the northeast corner of Kirby and 59 will sprout a new upscale neighborhood restaurant by late spring, reports Cleverley Stone. Rhea Wheeler and Debbie Jaramillo hope to open Haven in a brand new building at 2502 Algerian Way. No transfats will be used in its construction:

“Houston does not have a restaurant like this yet. We want to make the building as green possible. Since we are building a new structure we have the opportunity to incorporate many green concepts in the construction and design, from the building materials to the interior textiles, surfaces and lighting.”

For instance, Randy will have a garden on site that will be irrigated with rainwater collected by cisterns.

Randy is executive chef Randy Evans, formerly of Brennan’s.

Haven’s neighbors will be the shuttered Bennigan’s, Mai Thai, Lupe Tortilla, the Mucky Duck, and Taco Cabana — plus a small 6-plex apartment operated by would-be methadone-clinic proprietor Jared Meadors.

Photo of 2502 Algerian Way: Swamplot inbox

5:12 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
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Monday, December 8, 2008

$99K House Series: The Octagon

December 8, 2008 – 11:03 am

The latest in Swamplot’s roundup of entries to the $99K House Competition: This home from Steve Pribyl of dbaArchitects in Los Angeles:

This design is for a relatively modest 1400 s.f. house that utilizes innovative techniques to create an energy-efficient residence. An ecologically friendly house will use minimal natural resources over the life of the house.

A high surface-to-volume ratio is desirable in order to use a minimal amount of raw materials during construction. A sphere is the most efficient shape to meet this criteria, but it isn’t practical in terms of existing timber framing technology. An octagon is the closest reasonable approximation of a sphere using tried and true construction materials and methods.

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11:03 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

$99K House Series: SoyBeam House

December 4, 2008 – 5:05 pm

Next up in our $99K House Competition review: An innovative entry from Nick Gillock and Emil Mertzel of Lookinglass Architecture + Design in L.A.:

This project for an affordable, sustainable and energy efficient new 1264 square-foot home combines some conventional home-building techniques - such as below-grade utilities, an insulated concrete floor slab, concrete curbs and framed wall assemblies with pre-engineered shear panels - with an entirely new building component known as the SoyBeam™.

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5:05 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

$99K House Series: The Rippling House

December 3, 2008 – 11:11 am

Today’s featured entry to the $99K House Competition comes from Luca Donner and Francesca Sorcinelli of Donner & Sorcinelli Architetti in Silea — near Venice, Italy. It’s called the “Rippling House.”

The idea was to give people a home that could be built cheaply, using simple technologies, suitable for self-construction, and where they can have optimal comfort. These are the issues our studio focuses on: everyday problems. We believe that a good project should not necessarily cost more. You can give convincing answers even with limited budgets, and this project is an example.

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11:11 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Monday, December 1, 2008

$99K House Series: The Shell System

December 1, 2008 – 3:55 pm

Digsau, an architecture firm out of Philly, worked with Oldcastle Precast to come up with this $99K house entry, which uses some concrete technology more commonly encountered in Houston area civil structures:

A concrete module serves as the building block for the system, and its combination with other modules allows the structure to respond to specificities of climate, site, and individual preference. The system thus proves highly adaptable as an infill structure on vacant properties in an urban context and allowing for a diversity of exterior space in new developments.

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3:55 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

$99K House Series: Good for Houston

November 26, 2008 – 11:03 am

Houston architect Carl Brunsting calls his $99K House Competition entry “A Good House.” He says his

intent was to make an affordable house FOR HOUSTON, that emphasis meaning that the design was about having a sloped roof with overhangs to deal with our sun and 56 inches of rain, but without becoming something like a builder’s pastiche. It is built up off the ground like an old bungalow to keep it dry from flooding and up for privacy from the street and to avoid long-term problems with Houston’s expansive gumbo soil. It has a front porch for a lot of obvious reasons, and the overhangs all around mean that windows and doors won’t leak and you can open a window when it’s raining.

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11:03 am | 9 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

$99K House Series: The ShotFrame

November 25, 2008 – 5:56 pm

An eco-minded Houston home for only $99K? Here’s a shot at it . . . all the way from Muncie, Indiana. Michael Gibson, who teaches at Ball State’s College of Architecture and Planning there and is also a research fellow at the university’s Institute for Digital Fabrication, sent in this design:

The ShotFrame House is an updated version of the traditional “shotgun” house that is frequently seen in Houston and other areas of the southern US. Shotgun houses are characterized by a series of simple rooms, lined up perfectly on a lot from front to back: providing the advantages of a small, inexpensive footprint which can be easily framed. The ShotFrame House uses a similarly aligned series of views, but improves the shotgun-style building by employing a prefabricated, computer-designed and manufactured framing system. This framing system allows the rooms . . . to expand at points along the length of the house, allowing daylight to penetrate the middle rooms.

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5:56 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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Monday, November 24, 2008

$99K House Competition: The Series

November 24, 2008 – 4:46 pm

One day before an exhibition of design-competition entries at the Architecture Center Houston Downtown closed last month, the Rice Design Alliance and the Houston chapter of the AIA held a groundbreaking ceremony at 4015 Jewel St. in the Fifth Ward. The winning entry of the $99K House Competition, designed by Seattle architecture firm Hybrid/ORA, will be built on that site by contractor D.H. Harvey and sold or auctioned through the Tejano Community Center.

The competition, held early this year, was meant to produce a prototype for “sustainable, affordable” homes of 1,400 sq. ft. or less that could be built on lots made available through the city’s Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority. The Jewel St. site was donated by LARA.

The exhibition featured 66 selected entries to the competition, out of a total of 184 submitted. Images of those entries are included in the exhibition catalog.

Swamplot featured one kudzu-wrapped competition entry back in February. Beginning tomorrow, we’ll feature a few other entries received in response to a general request for Swamplot-ready versions recently sent to the participant email list that was conveniently added to the competition website.

(Note to competition participants who somehow didn’t receive a request from us: If you’d like to send in your entry, please email Swamplot and we’ll send you a list of requirements.)

Update: Entries in this series are now on this page.

Photo of 4015 Jewel St.: Jonathan LaRocca [license]

4:46 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward
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