Green home architecture is increasingly popular amongst homeowners looking to remodel existing homes or design new ones. Also known as “eco-architecture” or “sustainable architecture,” green home architecture reduces a home’s carbon footprint while increasing its energy efficiency.

Green Home Architecture Goals

Green architects take a long term view of residential dwellings. Every major step of green building and architecture is focused on conserving energy and natural resources. A well thought-out eco architecture project considers the environmental impact not only of building the residence, but of living in the home, future redesign projects, and recycling materials at the end of the home’s lifespan.

Examples of Green Building, Architecture

One of the main goals of any eco architecture project is energy conservation, including heating, cooling, and self-produced energy. The green home needs to conserve heat in the summer months and retain heat at night. Eco architecture techniques for heating and cooling include:

• Cooling the home with solar shading (awnings, blinds, shutters and carefully positioned trees)
• Positioning the home to take advantage of cooling winds
• Positioning windows in the south in colder climes to increase solar heat absorption
• Using green building materials that retain heat
• Using recycled materials such as denim or wheat straw for insulation.

Self-produced energy can include solar water heaters and small scale wind turbines, although zoning laws and neighborhood associations may prohibit either of these energy savers.

Green architecture is also concerned with water conservation. Green architects will, of course, use the most energy efficient plumbing materials available in the home’s construction. In addition, “gray” water can be used to flush toilets, reducing water use. (Gray water is water already used in showers and laundry).

Green architects also consider the life of a home. Assuming that changes in homeownership or lifestyle will necessitate architectural redesigns in the future, eco-architecture designs strive to make future renovations as easy as possible. For instance, green architects may design homes without load-bearing interior walls, so walls can be removed in the future without the need to make large scale structural changes.

Green Building Professionals

Green architects don’t work alone. For eco-architecture to be successful, contractors, interior designers, and building designers must all commit to green building practices. As reclaimed or renewable building materials become commonplace, it’s becoming easier to find members of the construction industry who are committed to green building practices.

Finding Green Architects

Not all architects are green architects. Homeowners interested in green home architecture may have to extend their search for qualified architects. Even if the search takes longer, the same criteria usually used to find architects apply to selecting green architects: Interview each architect, view their portfolios, check their references, and, if possible, tour examples of each architect’s eco-architecture projects.

It may take some time to find an architect willing to take on a green building/architecture project. However, the result is a home that takes less from the planet and can ultimately save you major money in energy bills.