To read an expanded version of our priorities in thinking differently and building differently, download our free PDF here.
During Earth Month, all of us think of going ‘green,’ but when building green it also means thinking differently and designing differently.
When we think about green building, we think first about innovation. Being innovative requires setting our priorities differently than when we used to do ‘normal’ construction. Since every home we design is now ‘green,’ our thinking is always focused on a few different and key priorities:
1. We look at the entire project holistically. I like to think of a building like a body. The systems in your body all work together. None of them can function individually, and the health of one will greatly affect the condition of the other. If your lungs are in poor health, for example, the rest of the body will be stressed and have to work harder. The same is true of a house. All of the systems work together, and you can’t sacrifice one without injuring the other.
The framing of the house is like the skeleton.
The envelope of the house (the insulation, siding and roof) is like the skin.
The electrical system is like your brain and nervous system.
The HVAC system is like your lungs.
The plumbing is like your alimentary tract, with a seamless supply of healthy water in, and effortless systems to get waste out.
The heart? The circulatory system? I think it’s the people who live in the house.
2. We look at the impact a building will have on the earth and the community. I have a vision of some day every single house on this beautiful planet being its own off the grid biosphere. It wouldn’t have a dome or anything, but it would be self-sufficient. Image your own home on its own plot of land needing nothing from its neighbors or from the town, city or state to operate. If the national grid goes down – you don’t even notice. If it does not rain for a while, you have full water collection tanks. You have zero dependence on fossil fuels. All waste is taken care of on site and you might even grow your own food.
3. We Innovate constantly to find the best ways to solve the same old problems. Trillium Architects is a firm solely dedicated to sustainable design and building. After 18 years we have honed our craft and have never stopped honing it. Our firm has dedicated itself to finding new ways to advance building science. Every house we do involves a new advancement that we are excited to try out.
Some of our recent innovations include:
An innovation on the ‘slab-less slab’
No foam houses.
Super creative details to tackle the problems of air sealing the thermal envelope
Phasing out all spray foams, reducing our use by approximately 90% in the last 8 years.
We outlawed Vinyl use in our house designs 15 years ago. ‘
4. We require sustainability.
We do not have to build things the way everyone else does. We determine the goal, see what materials are locally available and also sustainable, and then we ‘Get Creative’ and make something out of that. That’s what our ancestors did before we had global shipping and modern technology. And guess what? It was super sustainable!
Walking backwards into the future, is a Māori proverb and one of my favorites. It means looking back to the way things used to be done to inform the future.
We look at the idea of building with materials that are local and natural.
We build to suit the local climate.
Modern technologies integrated with the building wisdom of the past help us achieve the perfect solution.
We love our job and we love designing cutting edge houses for people that allow them to live in worry free comfort, health and beauty while saving thousands of dollars a year in operations and maintenance.
