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Cradle To Cradle Home, Roanoke, Virginia, USA
The Competition The Cradle to Cradle Home Competition demands that architects must follow the principles of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things, a book written by William McDonough and Micheal Braungart which calls for higher standards in ecological design. This philosophy adapts natural metabolisms to human industry. All products must be made with renewable sources of industry and must avoid depleting our nonrenewable sources while further enriching the ecosystem. Learn more about Cradle to Cradle on GreenBlue.org Requirements for the C2C Home Competition elaborate on the C2C philosophy as it relates specifically to housing. This includes modest yet ample size requirements (three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and entry foyer). In addition, architects must understand and consider the social and environmental context of Roanoke Virginia. Roanoke has a medium population density and its neighborhoods have a diverse racial and economic mix. Nevertheless, property value has seen a steady decline of late, and the winning C2C designs (4 from professional architects, 4 from architecture students) must be built at an affordable rate while raising the property value of neighboring houses. Furthermore, winning designs must rethink Le Courbusier’s paradigm of the house as a machine for living, including the design of new materials and construction components. This new machine must ultimately eliminate waste while creating a new housing typology.
The Winning Project
Energy will be generated using a highly effective photosynthetic and phototropic plasma skin. This living skin will grow and follow the path of the sun, collecting more energy than a single family will need, thus flooding the adjacent properties (including infrastructure) with the excess energy. Furthermore, this building reduces its energy usage employing age old practices of solar gain and shielding. The placement of windows and eaves collects and maintains the sun's warmth in the winter, reducing the need for electrical heating and lighting. Yet, due to the earth’s rotational tilt, this same system deflects the sun in the summer, keeping the house cool.
Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum We spoke with Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum about their winning design. They worked as a team with five other architects: Brenden Connolly, Julie Peterson, Richard Franko, Ron van der Veen, and Kristine Kenney. Though Tim and Matthew are credited as the leaders of their team, both agree that there was a “strong, well working collaborative process with [their] team” and without which their project would not have been so strong. Matthew Coates is a designer and founder of Coates Design and Tim Meldrum is a designer at Mithun. Both live and work in Seattle, Washington.
Coates and Meldrum reiterated that most of the sustainable design features of their building are basic techniques that require no new technology. For example, the ventilation core works with the shape of the earth to create areas of high and low pressures which maintain a comfortable indoor temperature. The idea is that the house returns to a “fundamental way of living”, says Matthew. In this sense, he says, the C2C house is a “hybrid, satisfying the demand for a home that is ecologically responsible but has principles of high design-it’s fulfilling this need for people who want both.” And utilizing original principles of sustainability that require no gadgets or moving parts makes this house even more sustainable, since it will not need maintenance or new parts. Ultimately, this house will be a prototype; "the [sustainable]infrastructure would become so efficient [to design] it would be as easy to implement as standard electricity and plumbing,” says Tim.
Tim and Matthew agreed that “some elements could be reinterpreted into an urban environment-for example, the photosynthetic cells.” Though their design was dependant upon green space to filter the water, this aspect could translate to a roof top garden with a basement treatment facility. As mentioned above, this design is a flexible prototype with no specific size requirement. We can imagine a small group of new urban homes which share the ventilation stack, rooftop garden, and basement water treatment facility in a dense neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area. When asked if architecture could compel people to live more sustainably, Matthew agreed: “Absolutely, it can. There’s an inseparable link between body and mind. The space of architecture influences our perception, which influences our body, which influences our mind. As we believe in our environment, we manifest those beliefs in our actions. For example, if we live in a house that is very environmentally conscious, and we think that is good, then when we drive our car which uses gasoline, we start to feel differently about [its impact].”
The designers are optimistic about how their project will be received by its community, though Matthew notes “every new innovation always [elicits] skepticism.” Of course, they know that there are definitely people who are looking for something new, specifically a house with “ecological autonomy.” Certainly, it will be the homeowners of all the new C2C homes who will be leading the target market. Tim reflects, “there are people who will be reluctant … about living somewhere like this until it is the norm.” And it is the responsibility of the design community to see to it that this is the normative approach to architecture. One of the five design requirements the C2C competition called for was this attitude, that designers should be leading the industry to adopt this new approach. “It’s our duty to research [other industries and material possibilities," Tim says, though the architect “may not have the technical knowledge” to fully detail new building materials. Indeed, they did, and their team came up with the idea to use extracted spinach protein to create a more efficient “photosynthetic plasma skin”. Though this feature will not exist in the first iteration of the C2C house, as it will not be realized for years to come, the house will be a “functioning structure [without it] designed with the future of the industry in mind." Matthew and Tim will be working with fabricators to help design this product for future users. They suggest that homes continue to be built with readily available materials, though Matthew thinks “[this] project will spur people to think outside of the box in terms of how to make their projects more sustainable.” Therefore, though more sustainable materials may not exist now, it is the architect’s responsibility to be sure that they will be easily applicable to his or her building as they come on the market. Matthew closed our interview optimisticly: “all the people involved in this project are after the critical mass collective consciousness that will start spreading and influencing all people.” It was the collective, collaborative process that made this project so strong. Indeed, it is this sort of cooperation that is necessary to bridge the gap between architects and fabricators bringing higher standards of sustainability to the vanguard of design. Gregg Lewis Gregg Lewis of Smith Lewis Architecture organized and administrated this past C2C Housing Competition, and spoke with us about the role of this important event. SmithLewis Architecture, located in Roanoke, VA, is a LEED certified firm and the recipient of the Virginia Conservation Network's 2005 Dogwood Award.
The C2C housing competition tackled many sustainability issues, most obviously the principles illustrated by the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. But Lewis reminds us that sustainability fundamentally deals with maintaining healthy urban density. A continuous exodus to remote suburban tract houses leads to the decay of the city. Currently, the houses neighboring the C2C site sell for a low $85,000, and there is very little new architecture in the downtown housing district. Lewis wanted the C2C houses to foster urban renewal, that is, to provide an alternative for those who wanted a new house in Roanoke, without the lengthy commute inherent to suburban living. Part of the challenge of this competition was designing a house that raised the property value of neighboring houses, but also would be affordable at just above the current rate. Most projects were able to solve the green issues quite well, though for many designers it was not as easy to find inexpensive ways to build these idealistic eco-friendly homes. Furthermore, many of the components the designers specified were not even available on the current market, as they were designed specifically for the C2C project. As these components become more readily available and abundant, thier costs will come down, making green building more affordable. Furthermore, the C2C competition required that designers worked with industry to rethink the materials used to build the house. For example, the super efficient spinach protein photovoltaics Coates and Meldrum specified for their house are not currently on the market. Therefore, they must find a fabricator who would work with them to realize these photovoltaics. Lewis claims that this sensibility should extend beyond the C2C competition: architects and designers have a professional responsibility to engage with the industries that are producing construction materials and help them catch up with the C2C concepts. New homes today are still built with unhealthy materials—including carcinogenic formaldehyde. Designers have an obligation to their clients and the world at large to lead this movement, because no matter how environmentally sound their buildings intend to be, if the materials don’t exist the design can’t be fulfilled. For Gregg Lewis, the C2C competition is an important housing competition, but more so it is a call to action to drive the industry. Of course, elegance and beauty will always to be important, but architects and designers should “rise above fashion” and expend more energy seriously pushing for positive changes in the construction industry. He hopes in twenty years time, we will look back and see the C2C competition as the vehicle that changed the way sustainability was perceived. Lewis nor William McDonough (who co-wrote Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things) are satisfied with the small steps we are taking towards sustainability. Every step forward we can take is positive, but how long should it take to fully embrace these principles? Finally, Lewis advises us to keep in mind that our current state is just a snapshot in the timeline toward real sustainability, and to continue to educate ourselves, our clients, and to push industry to embrace sustainability as a cradle to cradle process. Readers can learn more about global endeavors at China-Us Center for Sustainable Development. © 2006 New Urban Home
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The winning design of this year’s Cradle to Cradle Home Competition incorporates the use of renewable energy and water resources while fostering community in the diverse fabric of suburban Roanoke, Virginia.
Water is a most precious natural resource, and the C2C house collects and reuses an optimal amount. Rain is caught and filtered through the roof garden and is circulated throughout the home. Beneath the house, a treatment facility processes the gray and black water from the C2C house and, additionally, the residual waste water from neighboring properties. This water is released as fodder for an onsite vegetable garden, which is, again, efficient enough to nourish the C2C home owners and their neighbors.
The materiality of this house acknowledges reuse in two important ways. First, the materials themselves are recycled: reconstituted concrete is embedded with a reinforcing polymer mesh. A soy foam, which is more rapidly renewed than used, insulates the house. Next, the design of the home employs an open floor plan, suitable for a variety of uses and thus future home owners, recycling the house itself in a most efficient manner.
Ventilation is crucial in a humid southern climate, and proper ventilation enhances this already resourceful design. By paying attention to the site itself and the existing wind flows, the house is designed to optimize the collection of cool summer breezes. The house serves as a ventilation tower using opposing pressures to force the hot air out as the cool air flows in. Outdoor spaces are kept cool by generous overhanging eaves, another simple technique invented by primitive human builders.
Including the community in this progressive new machine for living is the greatest way to achieve acceptance. As already noted, excess resources the house generates are donated for communal usage, as excess waste is treated by the C2C house and put back into a communal garden. The garden also serves as a common ground for neighborly interaction and serves as a model for future shared amenities. Furthermore, the communal efficacy of this house and the novelty of innovation will lend increased property value to its neighboring properties. To quote the architects: “This design suggests that community interdependence is the necessary foundation for future growth”.
Also significant is the modular core which can be reconfigured in a variety of ways. “It’s highly customizable, this is just one manifestation [of the C2C house]," says Matthew. Tim adds that “the only limit is your creativity”. The central core, including the ventilation stack, is the key element of this house. Thus, the design serves more as an exemplar for many houses to come and could exist in a variety of shapes, sizes, and arrangements. Tim says, though, “the intention was that if you were someone who wanted to take this design to a more extensive level [in size], the trade off would be more infrastructure” to pool resources back into the neighboring community in proportion to the mass of the building.
Tim clarified that the point of the C2C house was not to force people to change: “If you design architecture well enough… to function as the person is used to, they don’t have to change their lives for the environment. If we can create a renewable source for all our systems, you wouldn’t have to live your life any differently.” The C2C house makes it easy to live sustainably. It’s the house that has changed, not the lifestyle.