The New Regionalist

--Bilyeu Homes builds a Passive House people would buy!

2010-08-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Bilyeu Homes of Oregon has just completed a Passivhaus that the average consumer would actually buy. Read the homeowner's blog to learn about the construction process. Jetson Green has a full overview.

-- Great Post from Treehugger on Ancient Indian "Air Conditioning"

2010-07-28T08:40:00.001-07:00

Check it out

--From Treehugger: Royal Institute of British Architects to Focus on Vernacular Architecure

2010-02-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

This is fabulous news: the Royal Institute of British Architects will hold a lecture series featuring numerous architects from around the world who have conscientiously incorporated vernacular architecture into their design portfolio.

Vernacular architecture represents the fusion of past and future technologies. It recognizes that traditional means for coping with climate demands are often less energy-intensive and therefore both cheaper and more environmentally friendly than many present methods.

"It is fascinating to see how local, vernacular architecture can be adapted to modern-day needs. The same principles that were behind the initial design of so-called "primitive" buildings can be modified for present day use, using cheap locally sourced materials. And these guys should know, because they have all done it in their own countries."

Keep Reading...

--From Treehugger: "Natural Temperature Conditioning with Courtyards"

2010-02-03T11:50:00.001-08:00

"People 4,500 years ago managed to keep their homes appropriately warm and cool without high technology -- and without wasting energy. How did they do it?

"Traditional courtyard homes developed between 3,000 or 2,000 BC "incorporate a variety of appropriately designed inward-looking habitable rooms and spaces at different floor levels around a planted courtyard to suit different seasons and to enhance privacy," according to an exhibit at the Science Museum of London that shows a model of one such house in Baghdad. These "naturally conditioned homes" are still found in many places, from Beijing to southeast Turkey, and likely beyond..."

Keep Reading...

--"Beyond Green Building"

2010-01-28T16:06:00.000-08:00

Encouraging report circulating in the office today. Even developers are starting to see the fiscal--rather than ethical--impetus for sustainable design.

Read all of "Beyond Green Building"

--"Towards a Critical Regionalism of Architecture"

2010-01-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

"The transition towards a mediocre civilization makes homogeneous the various cultures of the world problematizing the new growth of 'underdeveloped' cultures. The cultural past is put into question in the move towards modernization. "

Keep Reading...

--An important editorial from the the New York Times

2009-12-06T10:51:00.001-08:00

Jared Diamond--author of Guns, Germs, and Steel--has written an important editorial for the New York Times. He argues that environmental stewardship makes good business sense. This blog agrees. Businesses have historically increased profits through environmental consciousness. As energy prices increase, green consciousness will benefit the home builders and home owners dramatically.

A Must Read

--From Treehugger: On Daylighting

2009-11-25T06:33:00.001-08:00

"A hundred years ago there were all kinds of sophisticated technologies to manage, direct and control natural light. Cheap electricity made such variable and hard-to-manage sources unnecessary; just throw in a couple of fluorescent fixtures and it didn't matter how far you were from a window. But electricity isn't so cheap any more, and daylighting is making a comeback. Add some computers and controls and you get the new world of daylight management, where shading devices, heliostats and skylights are integrated with interior lighting systems to get the best and cheapest light possible."

Read it all.

--From the Today Show: "High Tech Homes of the Future"

2009-11-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

As part of NBC Universal's annual "Green Week," the Today Show this morning profiled High Tech Homes of the Future (ht AGFH). Once again, the public is subjected to a barrage of laughable ecoboxes that no significant market share of homeowner will want to spend forty years paying off. When will architects learn that building these monstrosities is reducing rather than stimulating demand for precisely the type of environmentally-friendly homes that America desperately needs?

--From the Wall Street Journal: "Builders Downsize the Dream Home"

2009-11-16T08:10:00.001-08:00

"'There's a lot more that comes with those McMansions,' said Mr. Easley. 'There's a lot more cleaning. There's a lot more heating, a lot more cooling.'

"Wieland believes the market downshift reflects 'a fundamental change in the way people are going to want to live,' and not just a reaction to scarce credit and insecure jobs, said F. David Durham, senior vice president. 'We're not waiting for things to return to the way they were.'"

Read it all

--From the NYTimes "Yemen Finds Dreamland of Architecture

2009-11-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

"Architects rediscovering the Old City soon found there was more than beauty at stake. The traditional houses were also more durable and effective than concrete-based modern houses, and better suited to the climate.

"'The traditional houses have many environmental advantages,' said Abdulla Zaid Ayssa, the director of the government office that oversees all building and renovation in the Old City.

"The traditional plaster, joss, does not erode stones over time the way cement does, Mr. Ayssa said, and is more durable. Qadad, a stone-based insulation material used in roofs and bathrooms, is much stronger than modern equivalents. The old stones and insulation techniques are calibrated to the sharp temperature shifts of night and day in Sana’s desert climate, so that the sun’s warmth fully penetrates a house’s walls only at day’s end, and is then retained through the night and no longer, Mr. Ayssa said. They are also much more soundproof and private than concrete.

"'They experimented for hundreds of years to find these techniques,' Mr. Ayssa said. 'By comparison, nowadays we are building houses with a very stupid concept.”'"

Read it all

--From the Guarian regarding Peak Oil: Sooner than you think, admits IEA whistle-blower

2009-11-12T10:18:00.001-08:00

A whistle-blower at the International Energy Agency admitted to Guardian sources that the IEA fudges its numbers on oil production to prevent a stock market fiasco related to the impending decline in oil production.

Is this true? Is someone just looking for publicity with this? Who knows. But the question you need to ask yourself is this: if the allegations are true, how will your lifestyle be affected? Wouldn't you prefer a home that was less dependent on energy consumption?

--"Houses of the Future" from Atlantic Monthly

2009-11-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

All energy-savings being equal, which of these Green houses do you think the citizens of New Orleans prefer?

"All those solar panels from the first eco-boom in the 1970s, and those clunky, angular houses they sat atop? Most are demolished and gone. “The carbon footprint of a building is meaningless once its parts are carted off to a landfill in a generation or two,” Mouzon told the crowd. The rebuilding of New Orleans by the people who love it, he suggested, may provide the most lasting green lesson of all."

An article in the latest Atlantic explores construction of green homes in New Orleans. Some are distinctly New Regionalist in nature, and some are eco-boxes designed by architecture students. Guess which ones residents prefer?

--Books to Read: How Buildings Learn, Architecture Without Architects, The Old Way of Seeing

2009-10-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

Three books were mentioned in a recent Ask MetaFilter post related to architecture. The person asking the question wanted to know why older buildings appeal to him more than newer buildings. A lot of really thoughtful answers were received (one is even one of the most popular answers ever on the site!), but the argument essentially boiled down to the realities of post-war consumer culture: people want cheap houses fast, and they would rather see them flying by at 55mph out of the window of a car than studied in-depth from the sidewalk.

Three books were recommended that I have perused and find useful. I recommend them to you as well:

How Buildings Learn
An examination of the role that societal and commercial pressures play on architecture. Many older buildings have a similar look because of similar constraints on raw materials, climate control, and lighting. Because we use electricity to accomplish these ends now, we can modify designs accordingly. The increasing pressure to move businesses into the hot new shopping destinations adds to urban decline.

Architecture Without Architects
This book is unassuming but remarkable. An examination of various vernacular building techniques from around the world, the book shows how humans have made their environments liveable over the planet (and without reliance on energy intensive Western means!)

The Old Way of Seeing
A beautiful book, the text is concerned with ideas that prodominated when buildings were constructed primarily to survive rather than make a statement. Some great insights.
And an update: I was happy to read how irritated the editors of TreeHugger were that no eco-box won the competition in Greenville, Kansas, but rather a largely-liveable home that the average homebuyer won't hate. A triumph for the masses and for capitalism over the inflated ideals of purists.

--From Treehugger: "Green is the New Normal for Architecture"

2009-10-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

"Green architecture" is now fetishized to the brink of irrelevancy. This piece today from Treehugger illustrates the problem well. Architects have so completely succumb to the notion that "green" means weird and covered with plants that the public perception is growing ever more entrenched against such buildings in the mainstream.

The soul of green architecture is contended, though not hotly. If architects continue to construct only these eco-monsters, the public conception that green architecture is inherently weird will be solidified. As a result, the opportunity to sell the public on energy-efficiency will be missed. The legacy of turn-of-the-century Green Architecture will be a few dozen bizarre buildings that someone fifty years from now must fight to preserve from demolition once the initial fanfare dies down and from the destructive effects of over-grown vegetation once the initial budget for landscaping is spent up. The legacy will not be livable, lovable spaces that interact well with their environment and are treasured by their owners.

--Chain of Ecohomes Competition

2009-09-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

A real opportunity is being missed as we speak. Greensburg, Kansas is rebuilding after a devastating tornado. The effort is striving toward making Greensburg the greenest city in America. Part of that effort involves a competition to design a new type of inexpensive housing for local residents. Here are two of my favorite entries:These two designs are relatively simple in origin. Indeed, they are classified as "rustic" on the competition's website. Predictably, however, they are being trounced in the competition. By this...thing:Why does this matter? Because the people who vote in this competition are architects, not regular people. People who know this competition is happening are subsets of architects who are interested in green architecture. Because this group of people has trained itself to see "green" not as an option for regular houses, but rather as a set of aesthetic choices all its own, "green architecure" ghettoizes itself into irrelevancy among a distinct and minor subset of the home building market. No. one. wants. these. houses.

Here are pictures of three houses that are roughly equal in their energy gains from emphasis on green design. But when asked to choose among hundreds of designs--designs that are submitted by a self-selecting group of eco-conscious architects--the larger green architecture community selects for homes that the market does not demand.

Why don't people want to buy green homes? Because "green" too often means a literally green travesty like you see above. Homebuyers are terrified of these monstrosities because they doubt they'll be able to resell them in the future. But if you were to construct those houses at the top of this post and en masse, then people will see their energy savings combined with the resale value...and you wouldn't be able to build enough of them.

Too bad, Greensburg, Kansas. Because of decisions like these, in fifty years you'll be an comical retrospective on stupid ideas from 2009 about what the future might look like.

--From the WSJ: "Turf Wars"

2009-09-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that a debate is raging between the EPA, state water control authorities, and businesses dependent upon the lawn maintenance industry. Many local municipalities are encouraging their residents to switch to low-water intensive landscaping by offering credits on their water bills for square footage of lawn eliminated. Companies that manufacture landscaping equipment and fertilizer fear this will lead to a label like "Energy Star" that homebuilders use and homebuyers demand. I, for one, certainly hope it does. (Unless people start paving their lawns like in the Bronx, which is just the worst idea ever.)

What interests me principally is why local authorities can make the connection between tailoring a lawn to the area's climate, but not tailoring the house to it as well.

Here's for tax credits and other incentives that reward homebuilders for such logical decisions as property orientation, design, and implementation of passive heating/cooling/lighting techniques appropriate to their region. (You'll save as much on electricity as you do on water...by far!)

--Obama Admits: Cap and Trade Could Cost you $1761 annually

2009-09-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

From, CBS News: a new White House memo suggests that Cap-and-Trade restrictions could cost the average American family up to $1761 in increased energy costs.

Will more expensive energy costs hamper your enjoyment of your home? Or is your home designed to naturally mitigate the effects of climate without recourse to expense energy?

--Jevons' Paradox and Your Home Bills

2009-09-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

This post from Treehugger today got me interested in Jevons' paradox.

In his 1865 book The Coal Question, William Stanley Jevons noted that increases in the efficiency of coal-burning steam engines lead to an increase rather than a decrease in utilization of coal. This seems entirely logical, of course. If coal is an inefficient power source, demand for coal will be small. If demand is small, the price will be low. But if a means of increasing efficient utilization of coal is devised, then demand for the efficient but cheap fuel will skyrocket. Prices will also increase, but if increases in efficiency follow, then a cycle is created in which demand creates innovation creates demand.

Jevons' paradox governs the economic use of all fuel sources. Any innovation that makes utilization of a resource more efficient will result in increased rather than decreased utilization of that resource.

This effect is noteable also because of its inverse. Decrease in efficiency leads to decrease in utilization. When several highways were demolished in California, for instance, traffic jams ceased because fewer people tried to drive, assuming that driving would be impossible without the old highways. "If the roads were jammed before, just think how bad they'll be now!" Similarly, we see that congestion in Boston has increased following the Big Dig; Why? because availability of the resource "roads" has increased demand for the resource and therefore destroyed any gains by unleasing "latent demand."

Latent demand is the enemy of efficiency gains. We overlook latent demand when we assume that demand is internally rather than externally constrained. Do people on budgets take lightening fast showers because they hate the warm cascade of water or because they can't afford to drain the water heater every morning? If the cost of heating that water plummets, will they continue their miserly habits, or begin to allow themselves the pleasure of a morning shower?

Most of our hopes for saving energy expenditure in home building rest on the assumption that innovations will keep pace with increases in cost. If electricity rates rise, compact fluorescent bulbs and high efficiency washer/dyers will step in to make those new rates affordable.

But at some point, logically, we reach the plateau where innovation no longer surpasses cost increases. The American consumer is certainly capable of self-regulation (within the constraints placed upon him...credit cards being the means most recently responsible for loosening our collective belts). The fact is, though, that no one enjoys self-regulation. Discipline is just plain no fun. So if your budget allows for $200 a month in electricity expense, and new bulbs or appliances shave $20 off that expense, you're likely to kick the heat up a degree or two. Why not? You would have spent the money anyway! Go ahead! Treat yourself! Jevons knew you would!

--How Much Will Your Climate Change?

2009-09-08T10:23:00.001-07:00

How much will the temperatures escalate where you live? Look here. (Hope you don't live in Kansas...)

--Restating the Thesis

2009-09-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Science has taught us to view all things through the lens of Darwinian evolution. That is to say, nothing in its present form got to where it is without a long process of adaptation to its immediate environment. We tend to think of human inventions as distinct and separate from this process, but architecture is a field in which one can recognize the gradual development of style through regular, minute innovation as each new building in a location takes shape. Unfortunately, the homogenization of American culture following WWII meant that the natural development taking place in distinct regions of the country were largely halted in favor of identical boxes that could be transplanted from one location to another and "acclimated' via an adjustment to the thermostat. As energy prices continue to rise unpredictably, however, the freedom to make those adjustments is increasingly limited. In this case, Americans--indeed, all people--do well to retrace the historical architectural developments of their region, garnering insights and learning lessons to help them live with greater freedom from fluctuating fuel prices.

As examples, let's look at a few thought experiments where innovations in architecture have clearly followed realizations about environment. Many of the wealthy merchants in American Southern and Western cities came from East-coast locations where Europeans had been settled since the seventeenth century. Space in these areas comes at a premium, of course. Houses in New York, for instance, were cramped and crowded--though stately!--to take advantage of the limited space. And don't forget that New York was founded by settlers from Amsterdam, where compact houses were a necessity:
So imagine that wealthy merchant has made his fortune in Chicago. Would he not wish to build a similarly styled mansion in this city?
You of course see architectural progress. The New York brownstone is plainer, closer to Federalist in style. The Chicago brownstone is more ornate; I can't help but be reminded of Romanesque form. But both houses have a similar footprint. Not until Frank Lloyd Wright did Chicago discover its own native form, however. Wright called this "Prairie Style," inasmuch as the design was meant for the wide, open spaces of the American west. The home's primary axis is no longer vertical as in New York, but rather horizontal, like the great expanse of the Great Plains.
In this example, we see three homes from three distinct periods of time. The design of these homes is altered over time to reflect a more direct interaction with the immediate environment. Literally, the homes are more "fit" to their surroundings.

We see the same effect when a style of architecture is so suited to its environment that it can't be improved upon. Pueblo and adobe construction in the American Southwest is a perfect example. The material availability and temperature-mitigating effects of mud-brick construction define the style of the region.
As you read other posts in this blog, you'll find that every region of the world has these locally perfect forms. You'll also see properties that were determined to be wise in one home that were repeated in future homes.

The achetypical Cape Cod house, for instance:
What do you notice? Here are three prominent features immediately obvious: (1) a central chimney. (2) A low, broad roof. And (3) Shutters. Here are two more pictures of the same style in which the same features are prominent. (Google "Cape Cod" and you'll find these houses are the rule, not the exception).

So why do these features repeat? Because they make the house livable during the Northeasters of Massachusetts lore. No heat escapes the house as when the chimney is stuck on the outside. The windows can be locked tight against flying debris. The roof does not present itself to be torn off by heavy winds. Wind, rain, and cold are the principle components of a New England winter. Obviously a New England house would be designed to combat them.

But let's say the son of that New Englander moves to Alabama to start a farm. Does he build the same house in Montgomery as in Massachusetts? The first few people likely did, for lack of a reason not to. But look at this picture of a typical Alabama dogtrot house:
What do you notice first? Two chimneys on the exterior walls instead of one chimney in middle. Why? Because Alabama is a lot hotter than Massachusetts, and trapping extra heat simply isn't necessary. Historians will tell you that a house like this was likely built in two stages. The first cabin was constructed, then the second, and then a roof stretched over both. Ample opportunity existed to build both cabins around the single fireplace, but trapping that much heat would be miserable most of the time in Alabama! Instead, the middle of this house features a tremendous breezeway to promote air circulation, just as the off-the-ground conventional foundation helps to keep the home cool. Here are two more pictures to show that we're dealing with core styles here and not outliers:What I hope is evident in these illustrations is the way in which historic homes were constructed to mitigate environmental effects.

Modern homes are also constructed to mitigate climate. But homes today do so in enery-intensive ways. This might allow you to construct a Cape Cod in Alabama or a dogtrot in Massachusetts if you happen to like the style, but you do so by paying a hefty energy bill every month.

This blog exists for one reason: to encourage home-builders to look at these insights from the past. As energy prices continue their upward trend, everyone can benefit from the "free" energy efficiency of historical regional architecture.

--From the NYTimes "The Unchilled Life"

2009-09-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

A 2005 article from the Brookings Institute suggested that the so-called "Sun Belt" will grow at ten times the rate of the so-called "Snow Belt" as early as 2020. Already, the disparity is close to four times. That means more and more Americans live in areas that, until the advent of air conditioning, were considered practically uninhabitable. So as more and more Americans more into these steamy hot spots, and as rising energy costs threaten the ability of the average American to keep the thermostat as low as he or she might like, what will people do to beat the heat?

According to a recent article from the New York Times, they'll more or less have to rearrange their entire lives and suffer miserably through the summer.

Can nothing be done to prevent this from being a part of your future? Everyone should plan now for even the possibility of life without climate control. If you live in the South, I can't recommend highly enough looking at the innovations featured in the older homes of the region. The world may know the South as one big Front Porch, but that architectural feature is certainly no joke when cooling air and giving homeowners a shady--and cheap!--place to sit while the heat pump sits idly by.

--Treehugger asks, "Why are Old Buildings Like Green Gadgets?"

2009-09-02T11:14:00.001-07:00

Treehugger recently asked why old buildings are like green gadgets. They spell out three main reasons, but the basic argument seems to be that the front-end interjection of power and materials required for new construction means anything new will always be less energy intensive than anything old.

There's absolutely sound logic to that argument. But here's a better point, and one that this blog seeks to emphasize: older buildings were constructed at a time when dramatic energy-add in the form of materials transport and climate control simply were not options. There was no air conditioning. There was no shipping lumber from Canada. A tree cut down in Alabama was used to build a house in Alabama, and the builder was damn sure he built a house that could cope with the heat as well as possible.

Old buildings are greener because they were loaded with technologies that mitigated environmental factors without the use of unavailable means. That means low-energy-add innovations like transoms, large windows, deep porches, heavy planting, and logical site placement for homes in the South. We think of these features as characteristically "Southern" because we're accustomed to seeing them across the South. But no one ever met in a conference room in Atlanta to establish architectural standards for an entire region. What we see regularly is a natural by-product of evolution. Of survival of the fittest.

Scarlett O'Hara goes to the plantation down the lane and notices that when the transoms are open, the parlor is cooler than at Tara. So you'd better believe she's going to insist on transoms when Rhett Butler builds a mansion for her later on. Bit by bit by bit, accidental discoveries accumulate into marked differences in quality of life until finally everyone sees the benefits of a certain feature and only the fools exclude them.

Here's a little experiment. Drive through the oldest neighborhoods in your city today. Determine what features seem to "define" the houses. Next, drive through the newest "subdivision." Are those innovations present?

Will the homeowners regret the absence as energy prices continue to climb?

Which of these houses will be more enjoyable if paying for air conditioning becomes an almost impossible burden on your budget?

--NPR Discusses "Greening" Your Home

2009-08-10T13:36:00.001-07:00

Today on NPR's All Things Considered, techniques to "Green" your home were discussed. The most important tidbit? The fact that the housing market is fairly evenly split between those who want hyper-green homes, and those who want the energy-savings of green home-building, but nothing to do with the politics of "green". This means that data is coming forward to support precisely the supposition forwarded by this blog: people like the benefits of green, but they do not want to be identified with the "treehugging" sub-culture.

Where, then, is the compromise to satisfy the two? New Regionalism supports the construction of traditionally-designed homes that live in harmony with their environment. Such homes garner the benefits of green innovation, but maintain the charm of traditional architecture.

Such is the market for tomorrow.

--From TreeHugger, a "Beehive House" to Beat the Desert Heat

2009-08-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

When you live in Syria and must suffer through hot and rainy summers, what do you use to make life livable? A few thousand years of architectural evolution suggests that you should built a "Beehive House."

Mud-brick construction is not a foreign technology by any means. We're familiar with the pueblos of the American southwest and similarly-designed structures across the globe. But what makes these Syrian structures unique is their relationship to their particular climate. Though exceedingly hot, rain is not as absent in this environment. Were these structures to feature the flat roofs seen on pueblos, the mud would absorb the water and crumble. The beehive shape, then, serves two purposes.

First, the cone literally funnels hot air out of the structure. The thick mud also manages to shade the space within and resist absorbing heat that would be emitted during the day. Though air temperatures in the area range from 60 degrees at night to 140 degrees during the day, the interior of these structures remains a cool 75 to 85 degrees, largely because only enough heat is absorbed to make a difference at night. (If my air conditioner is off all day, the temperature in my house sores to 95 degrees by noon--and 95 is the average summer temp here!)

The cone also serves to shed water rapidly down the sides of the structure, shielding the delicate building materials from the damaging effects of saturation.

Keep Reading on TreeHugger

As an aside, I can think of only one improvement to the design. Were the entire structure surrounded by a shading "porch," the air drawn into the beehive by convection would have been pre-cooled during the day. The limited availability of wood or a flat roofing material makes this improvement impossible in practice, but nevertheless desirable in theory. A quick sketch of my design is below.
This is yet another example of how vernacular architecture has evolved to fit its environment, a lesson we need to keep in mind when attempting to make out own homes as energy efficient as possible.

--The National Trust Makes Green Choices

2009-07-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

Barbara Campagna today posted a terrific piece on the National Trust blog about the by-design energy efficiency of regional vernacular architecture. As she notes, features like transoms, high-ceilings, awnings, and shutters were designed to beat the heat before climate control was available.

As we investigate energy savings, we're foolish not to include green design alongside technological innovation when we build for energy efficiency!

Check out her post.

--From the Times, "White Roofs Catch On..."

2009-07-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

A white roof reflects heat and keeps your house cooler in summer. What's the key paragraph in this great article?

“Relative newcomers to the West and South brought a lot of habits and products from the Northeast,” said Joe Reilly, the president of American Rooftile Coatings, a supplier. “What you see happening now is common sense.”

Keep Reading...

--Good Idea, Bad Implementation

2009-07-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is a model of one of the first Passiv Houses to be offered in North America. You can read more about it, here. The article argues that energy-efficient homes are going mainstream.

Once again, I take a qualified position. The average homeowner does not want to live in that "tree-hugger," "hippie" "eco-box." Yes, a niche market absolutely exists. But if we want energy-efficient homes to be a real commidity and not a fringe market that eases our collective guilty conscious about energy-consumption, then somebody, somewhere needs to design and build eco-friendly-but-conventional-looking homes. Using the long-established regional variations in architecture would better suit local climates and easily create giant market share in precisely the spot where conventional and green construction overlap.

--From the Times, "Texans Asked to Conserve Electricity"

2009-07-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

Spend any time researching the fastest growing cities in America, and you'll find that a disproportionate number are in Texas. And that could cause chaos in the coming years, as Texas this year finds itself in a record-breaking heat-wave. If your strategy for mitigating the effects of heat is to pump cool air into indoor living spaces, then you should calculate a record heat-wave will result in record energy consumption as those air conditioners churn away.

Well, your calculations would be correct. Record population + record heat + sustained desire for comfort + electricity-dependent climate-control systems = record energy uses. So much so, Texas is asking its residents to conserve electricity.

One of the variables in that equation has to change. The population won't, as jobs are expected to increase faster in Texas than anticipated. The heat won't, as global warming could alter the Texas temp by up to 6 degrees. Demand for air conditioning won't soon cease, either.

The solution, then, must lie with the variable of electricity-dependent cooling systems. Three options are available.

1) Increase the supply of electricity to meet the demand.
2) Decrease the demand for electricity through more energy-efficient appliances.
3) Decrease the demand for electricity through smarter construction.

As an individual, you can little to ensure that the supply of electricity is increased, other than call your congressman and vote for such measures when possible. You can certainly replace your appliances with more energy-efficient models, but indications are that energy-efficiency savings are offset by demand increases on the micro-level. (That is, for every dollar you save through a high-efficiency washer/dryer combo, you are likely to spend an extra dollar on lighting your living room. Your net utility bills tend to remain constant once established, because energy savings tend to drive up consumption).

Mitigating the effects of the heat through smarter construction, then, seems to be the most viable option for energy savings over the long-haul. New Regionalism is one such method of smarter construction through green building.

--Another Helpful Resource

2009-06-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

This one comes from a Dutch writer presently based in North Carolina. He provides a helpful rundown of many passive energy techniques. Of particular interest to me here in Alabama is his inventory of passive cooling techniques.

A New Regionalist Approach looks for ways in which the traditional architecture of a location can capitalize on these techniques while looking "traditional" and not "green." The reason for this effort is to combine the markets for traditional and energy efficient homes and gain significant marketshare from each as an effort to ground the Green Revolution in a market-based economy.

www.greenandpractical.com

Green and Practical's article on Passive Cooling

A link from Green and Practical to an article on Solar Updraft Towers, the science behind cupolas in many older homes. (Did you really believe widow's walks were popular because of romance and not practicality?)

--National Impact of Global Climate Change Analyzed

2009-06-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration released a report today detailed the expected effect global climate change will have on the United States. The New York Times Green, Inc. blog reports here.

Here's the most important part of that report for this blog: If global temperatures do indeed continue to rise, then demand for cooling technologies will exceed demand for heating technologies. Because builders tend toward the "Tighter Envelope" method of increasing energy efficiency, homes will continue to be utterly dependent on their increasingly powerful Air Conditioning units. But as temps rise and more AC units come online in areas ever further north, electric rates will rise and cooling will grow more expensive. This does not even take into consideration the fact that cooling homes creates a feedback loop: temps rise because of global warming, we turn on the AC, new power plants are needed to fill the demand for electricity to power the AC, new power plants contribute more greenhouse gases, more greenhouse gases cause temps to rise, and the cycle turns again.

Obviously, then, a home that heats and cools itself in better relationship to its environment will be in demand over the coming century. Many benefits will of course come from looking into new technologies. Old technologies, however, are forgotten only to our detriment.

--U.S. Coal Reserves Depleting Faster than Anticipated

2009-06-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

According to today's Wall Street Journal, the US should perhaps no longer think of itself as the Saudi Arabia of coal. Apparently the amount of available coal has been determined annually by subtracting the previous year's extraction totals from survey estimates of available reserves. Problem is, those survey estimates did not account for the difficulty of extraction. While most West Virginia coal has been relatively simple to acquire, coal west of the Mississippi River tends to be found in geologic formations that cannot be removed cost-effectively--even if prices for coal were to rise dramatically.

So the cost of oil continues to rise, the reserves of coal are proving inaccessible, nuclear plants are opposed by NIMBYs everywhere, and emerging technologies like wind and solar can't yet met the demand placed on them. At this point in the conversation, people tend to get lost in abstractions. They begin shouting "Drill, baby! Drill!" They pledge their certainty that, in a capitalist system, technologies for coal extraction, nuclear waste disposal, or solar and wind power will rise to meet the demand placed on them by the market. They talk, talk, talk, talk.

Now that's just fine. Anyone who predicts catastrophic energy meltdown is an alarmist. You can rest assured there'll be oil derricks in Alaska and wind-power generators off the Kennedy compound before we'll suffer through a national blackout.

But before you get caught up in the national or global scope of this problem, take a micro-examination of your own life. If energy costs were to suddenly double or triple, could you maintain your present lifestyle? As gas prices begin to inch back up, don't forget that the price of gas is related to the price of heating and cooling your home, the price of keeping the lights glowing, the price of planting the food you eat, fertilizing the food you eat, harvesting the food you eat, shipping the food you eat, storing the food you eat, and cooking the food you eat.. For a few moments, forget the Republican or Democratic rhetoric about the "solution" and the "obstructions". Forget your confidence in the system or your lack thereof.

Forget everything momentarily except a mental image of how your lifestyle would be affected by triple gas, electricity, and food prices.

--More Green Houses No Real People Will Buy

2009-05-31T18:46:00.001-07:00

Here's the problem with the present state of green homebuilding: these houses are cartoons. Real people don't want to live in them.

Homebuilders are building houses that appeal only to "green" people and among that group are considered "normal". Thinking must move orthagonally--homebuilders must begin constructing "green" homes for "normal" people.

As always, this blog affirms that the secret is New Regionalism.

Read the whole story, here.
From today's Wall Street Journal...

--From the New York Times: "Snug and Tight"

2009-05-27T13:16:00.001-07:00

--A Green McMansion?

2009-05-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

I love everything about this. Cherokee Investment's "Mainstream GreenHome" is EXACTLY what everyone should be thinking about. Read the article from BusinessWeek, here.

--Green Campus Hits and Misses

2009-05-15T08:45:00.001-07:00

The above building is graduate student housing, where windmills and solar panels provide electricity and up to 80% of student food is grown in the surrounding garden. (Do we really need to make grad student life that much harder?)

Business Week has profiled campus efforts at greening. Most of these efforts aren't too interesting from a New Regionalist perspective. But check out College of the Atlantic, which succeeds on too many levels to mention. The mass consumer market has a place for their dorms, unlike the Penn State effort pictured above.

--From the New York Times: Car-free in Germany

2009-05-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

Vauban, Germany — Residents of this upscale community are suburban pioneers, going where few soccer moms or commuting executives have ever gone before: they have given up their cars.

Keep Reading

Here's the problem with glorifying this suburb: Germany already has walkable urban centers. A suburb that connects to a walkable urban core via light rail is a brilliant idea, yes. But what if you tried to connect The Waters or Hampstead to Montgomery via light rail. A train stop at Eastchase and one downtown...and still no access to a major supermarket or movie theater or airport or discount retailer or....

Maybe car-free suburbs are admirable in the Northeast. The rest of the country has a long way to go.

--From the New York Times: Car-Free in America?

2009-05-13T07:36:00.001-07:00

"A New York Times article from this week described efforts in Vauban, Germany, a suburb of Freiburg, to go “car free.” The story mentioned attempts in some American communities to achieve something similar. While walkable communities have become common all over the United States in the last 15 years, going car-free is another challenge altogether. Is this a realistic goal in a car culture like ours? We asked some urban planners, developers and other experts to comment."

Keep Reading

--A Tax Credit for Builders

2009-05-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Check out this link for tax credits to home builders that employ energy efficiency techniques.

--"The Green House of the Future"

2009-04-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal profiles four visions of future homes. Three of them are, frankly, useless. But one thinker was grounded firmly in reality:

"Looking to the future isn't the only way to be innovative. The house from architect Steve Mouzon, of Mouzon Design in Miami Beach, Fla., uses tomorrow's technologies while mining ancient techniques to reduce energy use.

"For instance, solar paneling built directly into the roof and façade provides electricity and hot water. But the house also employs a 'breeze chimney,' an architectural tool used by the ancients, as a kind of old-school air conditioning.

"The difference between the air pressure in the chimney and outside causes hot air to flow out of the chimney stack and cooler air to enter through windows and doors.

"'It must make sense first,' says Mr. Mouzon, a so-called New Urbanist architect who believes in traditional designs that emphasize pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. His house 'isn't trying to do wild and wacky things with roof shapes or wall shapes but a good sensible building that is highly lovable. It is inventive where it needs to be.'"

Read the whole article here, where a larger plan of the above drawing is also available.

--"Major Emitters Meet"

2009-04-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

If your business is not preparing to green itself, then this story from NPR should make you reconsider. Leaders from the 16 countries that produce the majority (75%+) of the world's greenhouse gases will be meeting to discuss how emissions might be curbed.

Two points are notable: First, China surpassed the US as the leading emitter of greenhouse gases earlier this year. This fact, coupled with a US Presidency more willing to respond to the threat of global warming, suggests that the United States might be moving into a "moral high ground" on climate change that it was unable to assume before. You can't wag your finger at the bad guy when you're the bad guy. But when someone else steals that spot from you? Wag away.

More importantly, however, is the fact that this meeting might mean international agreements among the most industrialized nations in the world regarding emissions from manufacturing. Business leaders have until this point been unwilling to accept higher emissions standards in the United States, and perhaps rightly so. If a manufacturer of steel in the US is hit with a massive carbon-emissions tax, for instance, then suddenly imported steel from China or some other country with no such tax becomes more financially feasible, even with the cost of shipping added in. Not only are greenhouse gases not curbed by such a measure, but they are in fact increased, as China presently has lower emissions standards than the US, and the emissions from shipping the material across the Pacific have to be factored in. Cap-and-trade restrictions in one nation alone would be merely a reverse tariff on domestic trade, which would have to be countered with international trade tariffs to balance the cost. The result would be pricier goods, more greenhouse gases, and strained international relations. The reason this meeting matters, then, is that suddenly every industrialized nation might be willing to impose new regulations at the same time, eliminating the penalty of being the only nation to spearhead regulation.

What does this mean? It means that a business model designed with green industry in mind will profit. It means stock in a green company will sky-rocket. It means consumer demand for goods that are unaffected by escalating "climate tax" costs will be astronomical. All industries are facing the fact that they must brace for this change.

Prediction: Home-builders who build homes with the correct balance of aesthetic appeal, energy efficiency, and upfront cost will be indescribably in demand over the next twenty years. Are you one of those home-builders?

--"Literally Green Facades"

2009-04-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

This article discusses how creeping vines are used to clad building facades and decrease solar heat gain. This is yet another inexpensive way to work in harmony with the environment of a home in order to reduce dependency on expensive, inefficient heating and cooling devices.

Imagine a Southern home that is covered in Morning Glory, Moonflowers, Wysteria, or Ivy. During the summer, the plants shade the walls and act like an exterior layer of insulation. A trellis keeps the plant from deteriorating the wall material, while also allowing a pocket of air to circulate, benefitting both the plant and the home. When winter arrives, the plant dies, is cut back (and composted in order to benefit the next season's growth!) and now the sun's rays can directly heat the home and warm the interior spaces.

I'll take this chance to note that, despite colder-than-average temperatures, I never once had my heat pump turned on until after sunset this winter. I just opened the curtains on the southern exposure to my house, and the sun did all the heating for me!

--WSJ: "U.S. in Historic Shift on CO2"

2009-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

U.S. in Historic Shift on CO2:Businesses Brace for Costly New Rules as EPA Declares Warming Gases a Threat

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration declared Friday that carbon dioxide and five other industrial emissions threaten the planet. The landmark decision lays the groundwork for federal efforts to cap carbon emissions -- at a potential cost of billions of dollars to businesses and government.

Keep Reading

Is your home-building business prepared?

--For Sale in Florida

2009-04-18T22:35:00.001-07:00

This beach house is for sale in Florida right now, and the listing specifically notes that the house draws on the region's traditional architecture. Note that the primary living space is elevated (to avoid storm surges). The roof is broad (to divert rain) and metal (to reflect heat). The eaves are extended (to shade the windows). The windows are numerous (to maximize light and to allow for sea breezes). A large porch allows for plenty of outdoor living space on cool nights. This house has many smart, New Regionalist features.

--The Wisma Negeri

2009-04-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Seremban is a city in Malaysia and the capital of its state. This particular state is the homeland of the Minangkabau culture and is also subject to the torrential rains of the Monsoon season. The high roofs of their structures, though now largely ornamental, originally evolved to keep interior spaces dry. The bottom image shows the first Minangkabau village, the middle image a modern home, and the top image the modern state capital in Seremban. The inspiration for the sweeping gables is the horn of bulls, but you'll easily see that the gutter-like dimensions of the valleys diverts the heavy downpours off and away from the structure. Environmental adaptation drawn from vernacular wisdom is the heart of New Regionalism.

--Polish Hotel "Redyk"

2009-04-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

This hotel matters. Though thoroughly modern in construction method and materials, its distinctive design is based entirely on the traditional structures in the surrounding Polish mountains. The roof diverts snow so effectively as to need no improvement over the vernacular style. This rubric is the key to New Regionalism.

--"An Exploration of Indigenous Building Forms"

2009-04-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

I can't praise this project highly enough. A services center for a First Nations community in Nova Scotia, the building it based on a traditional Native American Longhouse. Not only is it visually stunning, but its dimensions simultaneously provide passive solar warmth while diverting significant snowfalls--gains first understood by First Nations who built long houses centuries ago. Congratulations to Piskwepaq Design Inc. on a commendable job!

--"Suncatcher"

2009-04-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

This project proves that energy efficiency can be created through the same attention to location that integrates a building to site. In fact, the two goals are more realistically one in the same! Of course, the building is more modern than a New Regionalist structure would ideally be, but the conscientious attention to environment is important, nevertheless.

--"Fundamentals"

2009-04-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Fundamentals of Green Construction are important to keep in mind. Anyone wishing to profit from sustainable home development should note, however, that homes with grass roofs will likely never appeal to the mass market. But homes that cut energy costs by using local materials arranged for a local climate? Well, that's one kind of green that will lead to lots of another kind of green.

--A Green House That You Would Probably Never Buy

2009-04-14T09:24:00.001-07:00

--The Three Ways to Build "Green"

2009-04-11T11:41:00.003-07:00

The term "Green" is thrown around a lot these days. An examination of the ways one can "build green" would be helpful. This brief thumbnail sketch will examine green methods in decreasing order of environmental impact.

1) The method of green building that has the greatest environmental impact (and therefore the least benefit to the environment) is the "Energy Efficiency" method. This is also the method that will receive the greatest attention in coming years, because it does not represent any major divergence from our present construction trajectory. The history of human construction has been an effort to find the sweet spot among the variables of better, stronger, faster, and cheaper construction. In modern times, this has meant tighter envelopes and more energy-efficient appliances. Homes use nominally less energy to engage precisely the same heating, cooling, cooking, cleaning, and entertaining goals. Because this method is simple--contractors build almost exactly as they always have, but use insulation with higher R-values and install appliances with Energy Star labels--the building industry will have no reason to stray from it.

2) The second method of building green has less to do with the house-as-product and more to do with the materials employed to produce it. Bricks and lumber reclaimed from previous demolition projects, straw bales and biomass in lieu of synthetic insulation, and specially-engineered low-environmental-impact materials are the focus of this method. The principle goal of this type of construction is to ensure that front-end environmental impact is as little as possible. Because this method alone might conceivably involve little savings for the home-buyer (and indeed greater costs up front), the method will remain appealing largely to a niche subset of environmentally-conscious consumers.

3) The third method of building green involves the greatest paradigm shift in construction, but ultimately requires only nominal effort by developers, architects, and builders to produce enormous payoff for home-buyers. New Regionalist architecture involves designing a home to interact with its environment so perfectly as to reduce demand for electricity, gas, and water and thereby create energy savings. Because this method depends not on the latest appliances (which will always become obsolete) nor on expensive building materials (which are obviously cost-prohibitive for the mass market), it is intensely viable as energy prices continue to rise.

4?) The forth method is, of course, a combination of the above. Perfect green construction would somehow involve each of the three methods described above.

The New Regionalist hopes that all methods for building green are seriously considered for the marketplace, as failing to do so will not remain economically viable.

--Multifamily can be green, too

2009-04-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

A resource guide.

--"Creating Character" from Southern Living

2009-04-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

"Worthy of an epic best-seller, this new Lowcountry home takes its cues from old regional architecture and well-crafted features. You’ll be inspired to bring this oh-so Southern look to your house."

While not necessarily New Regionalist in nature (we don't know anything about the energy savings--the home was designed to look Southern, not to function in the South), this house is still an important signpost along the way! Check it out!

--The Artic Dome (not misspelled)

2009-04-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

A great example of architecture tailored to environment: the Artic Dome Amazing how wisdom can be drawn from the insights of first peoples.

--The Benefits of "Daylighting"

2009-04-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

“Daylighting represents the single largest ‘new’ opportunity for energy savings in commercial lighting today and for the foreseeable future.”

--"This Old Wasteful House"

2009-04-06T14:08:00.001-07:00

According to this op-ed in the New York Times, retrofitting older homes could save millions of metric tons of carbon. Homes built before 1939 use, on average, 50% more energy than homes built in 2000. The article notes, however, that these losses are due to absence of insulation. Combined with capitalizing on older homes' natural design elements, retrofitting could be cost-effective.

--"Regionalism: New Mexico's Contribution to Architecture"

2009-04-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

An interesting overview of architecture in Albuquerque, including how global movements like Art Deco were adapted by Pueblo and Spanish influences to suit the American Southwest.

--Energy Secretary to speak at Harvard Commencement

2009-04-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

In what constitutes yet another indication that energy policy will be at the forefront of politics in the coming years, Harvard has announced that Secretary of Energy Chu will deliver its next Commencement Address. Secretary Chu shares this distinction with Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced his plan to finance European recovery while delivering the speech. I suspect we should all be listening closely!

--You Simply Must Check Out...

2009-04-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

...The Architectural Evangelist. Now. Seriously.

--Energy Efficiency in Georgia

2009-04-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Check out this article for updates on how the federal stimulus will promote energy efficiency in Georgia, thereby having far-reaching effects on the market for green construction in the entire Southeastern Region.

--"How Green Is My House"

2009-03-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today's "Room for Debate" in the Times references numerous things that can be done to improve the efficiency of existing homes--stopgap measures for homes you're stuck with during the recession. Why not learn from these measures when you buy your next home?

--Greenchip Stocks

2009-03-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

On Wall Street, the historically reliable and high-performing stocks are known as Blue Chip. This colorful nomenclature has inspired a new set of stocks to watch, the Green Chips.

--Useful EPA Directory

2009-03-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

Check it out

--Obama Links Budget to Environment

2009-03-25T06:41:00.001-07:00

From the Associated Press

If you don't recognize that green construction will make dramatic leaps forward because of the Obama administration, then you're not paying attention.

--Consumers Sabotage Energy-Saving Efforts

2009-03-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

From USA Today

--The First Domino

2009-03-23T13:43:00.001-07:00

The playing field was radically altered today--you just don't know it yet.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced today that it will officially acknowledge the harmful effects of such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide and methane. This will open the door for cap-and-trade and other increased forms of fossil fuel regulation.

Those bits of paper that come with your power bill every month? Start reading them. You'll find more inserts describing switchgrass and wind power. Instead of offering free electric water heaters, they'll soon be explaining why your power rate will be shooting up dramatically. Why will this happen?

For all our talk about solar power, wind power, nuclear power, hydroelectric power and other such renewable resources, fully half of the electricity generated in the US comes from coal. Alabama has long been below the national average in electric rates, but image how that cost would change if the EPA levied fines on coal-burning plants?

This blog does not seek to be political; both "liberal" and "conservative" sources are cited. The blog will not take a position on whether the EPA SHOULD impose such regulations. Rather, the blog assumes that the political and social climate of the coming years will ensure that such regulations ARE imposed. Based purely on that assumption, this blog endeavors to encourage the construction of homes and buildings that can cope with the increased fuel costs generated by these regulations.

Let's be clear: political wrangling will take place. One party will try to halt the imposition of these regulations, arguing that the increased costs of electricity will harm business interests and therefore cause the economy to stall. This argumentation won't triumph; the US suffered such image problems during the previous Presidential administration that both politicians and citizens are courting international favor by making the US a global leader in energy policy. Regulation is coming. Increased energy prices will follow.

(This is an aside, particularly for those concerned with urban sprawl. The current status of the Superfund legislation dictates that the present owner of an industrial site is responsible for any environmental cleanup required by that site. This means that if a substance used by an industry is later declared to be harmful, and if that site is now owned by a new business, the new business is responsible for cleanup on the site. Ever wondered why dry cleaners close up and leave abandoned store-fronts all around town? Because no one wants to buy a site that may later require expensive cleanup operations. Now, consider the invested infrastructure in present industrial sites. If the price of utilities increases such that the invested infrastructure is no longer cheaper to maintain than new infrastructure would be to build, then new factories will be favored by industry. But the present state of Superfund legislation ensures businesses will prefer to buy and degrade present virgin land rather than update old sites. This fact must be considered before the EPA creates sweeping regulations.)

How are you and your business planning for the coming increase in energy costs?

--EPA to acknowledge harmful effects of greenhouse gases

2009-03-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times

--Under Obama, Electricity Prices to Increase by $1800 Annually

2009-03-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

What would happen to your budget if your electricity costs jumped by $1800 annually? I'll bet you'd be in the market for a more energy efficient house!

--US Department of Energy Eletricity Price Projections

2009-03-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

This graph is important not only because it shows the increase in electricity prices expected by the US Department of Energy, but also because it compares those price increases to growth in demand. You'll note that even though demand will grow only slowly in the coming years, the price of electricity will continue to climb at a near constant rate. Now imagine what that rate will do if an economic upswing leads to increased demand? This chart more than the time period encompassing the average life-span of any new 2009 mortgages--six years.

--"Energy Efficiency in Vernacular Architecture"

2009-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

This link is an interesting examination of energy efficiency in Southwestern Regional Architecture.

--R. W. Brunskill on Vernacular Architecture

2009-03-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

"...a building designed by an amateur without any training in design; the individual will have been guided by a series of conventions built up in his locality, paying little attention to what may be fashionable. The function of the building would be the dominant factor, aesthetic considerations, though present to some small degree, being quite minimal. Local materials would be used as a matter of course, other materials being chosen and imported quite exceptionally." [ R.W. Brunskill, 'Vernacular Architecure: An Illustrated Handbook, (Faber & Faber, 4th ed, 2000), pp.27-28]

--Sense of Place

2009-03-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

If you've seen The Truman Show (or if you live anywhere within 200 miles of Florida's panhandle) then you know about Seaside. This master-planned community was one of the first places to introduce a concept of new urbanism into popular consciousness. Mt. Laurel near Birmingham is another such location here in Alabama. A fairly substantial list of Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs) can be found here.

According to one report, 50% of American home-buyers are interested in TNDs, but, despite the large number of projects listed in the above link, only 5% of new home construction in the US is slated to be TND. One reason for this is obvious: the market favors a developer making a large tract of land available for individual contractors to independently build homes according to only the loosest uniform design standards. The less regulation involved in the design of the community, the fewer salaries to pay. Those savings get passed on in the form of lower price per square foot. (A quick couple of phone calls reveals that the price per square foot in Montgomery's TNDS is precisely twice that of the price per square foot in the other fastest growing subdivision in the city, Deercreek).

A TND is certainly a hot commodity, and the appeal of generating such neighborhoods is not financial alone. There is a real sense that the TND represents a better step in the evolution of home building--one in which the environment and culture are allies of the builder. This was partially inevitable: as the last bits of former outlying farms in places like Alabama were built up, more wilderness areas had to be developed. Learning to work with the land and not against it vastly improved the quality of life to be lead in these neighborhoods.

But the work is not over. TNDs will continue to be build. Indeed Hudson, Alabama is an upcoming TND to be built in the Montgomery metropolitan area. Hopefully, the builders of that TND will take into consideration the arguments of this blog that "Sense of Place" should be more than an artificial creation (does Montgomery really need an English country village? Does such construction capitalize on the natural assest of its location, or merely create a Disneyland that appeals to a certain socio-economic demographic?) but should be a way of ensuring that homes thrive as part of their environment.

--LEED Certification

2009-03-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

All contractors should be LEED certified. Period.

--Old Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

I took this shot in Montgomery's Old Alabama Town. The quintessentially Southern elements are largely in play: a big porch (on the northern exposure), numerous windows to promote cross-breezes, and a traditional foundation to allow shade. One element of this traditional architecture not likely to be replicated in newer architecture is the off-site kitchen. Though joined by a shared porch, the kitchen is housed in a separate building. This prevents the heat from spreading into the other living areas, as well as saves the rest of the house from destruction if the kitchen were to catch fire.

--"What is new about this?"

2009-03-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Wikipedia articles on Passive Solar Heating and Passive Cooling make clear that New Regionalism is by no means a novel idea nor a breakthrough technology. Quite on the contrary, New Regionalism is a way of integrating an understanding of how energy is gained and lost in a home with an appreciation for the methods of solving that problem that were common in earliest vernacular architecture.

Let's take a closer look. To start, I googled images of "Southern House" and found this house on the front page:
Most people would relatively quickly recognize this as a Southern-style house. Quintessential elements include the wrap-around porch, the galvanized metal (or "tin") roof, the gargantuan windows, and the setting among countless pine trees. But why are those elements quintessentially Southern? Did Southern homebuilders meet together before Europeans colonized the area and set design standards, as neighborhood planners do today? Certainly not. The elements that have come to be considered quintessentially Southern are the product of a type of evolution: the houses best suited to their environment became models for future houses, and the houses poorly suited to their environments were not replicated. With time, the replicated models exhibited increasingly more of those characteristics that observers would regard as exemplary of a given region.

Determining, in hindsight, why a given architectural feature would prove advantageous requires a little forensic science. Most commentators and writers, for instance, have considered the front porch of a Southern house to be a primarily social space: everyone sits on the front porch and greets the neighbors, and conversations and relationships arise accordingly. But why were people congregating on the porch? Likely because the porch was cooler than the house. But did you know the porch also serves to cool the house interior!

Let's revisit the photograph above. The tin roof over the porch reflects the sunlight and therefore prevents the radiant heat from warming the air on the porch. In the summer, the windows around the porch can be opened. Because the air in the house will be warmed by the enclosure during the day, the inside of the house can at times be hotter than the outside. Everyone remembers from high school that hot air rises. By opening the windows in the second story, the heated air inside can flow up and out of those windows. Where will the replacement air in the house come from? It will be drawn in from the first floor windows--the cooled air from under the porch.

This is a passive version of precisely what an air conditioning unit does: pump out the hot air and pump in air that has been cooled. But a passive cooling technique offers this benefit for free. The house has the additional cooling benefit of a pine forest surrounding it. The shade of the trees naturally blocks heat and thereby cools the house.

Now compare that house to this block of houses:
No large trees shade the houses. Small windows on two elevations prevent cross-breezes. No porches mean no cooled air to draw inside. Black asphalt shingles absorb heat and make the whole house an oven. Without an HVAC system, this house cannot breath and neither can the people who live in it!

Now look at this house from Mother Earth News, a design even better than the one above:
The tin roof covers the entire house, reflecting solar energy away and preventing the house from warming during the summer. (The roof is also a barrier to heat loss from the house during the winter). Notice the wrap-around porch extending to the hidden exposure. Also notice the extended eaves on all gables: the sun is shaded from entering the windows and more free heat-shielding occurs even where there is no porch. The traditional (as opposed to poured slab) foundation allows air to circulate under the house. The windows and doors allow for better circulation and thereby free air conditioning.

The proximity to water does raise interesting questions about how one might construct a commercial subdivision: water has cooling effects on nearby houses, but unless that water circulates well, it can promote mosquitoes.

The next post will consider how an entire subdivision might be constructed using these principles.

--Old Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

One of these little white churches is designed to allow cross-breezes and thereby cool off parishioners on a hot Sunday morning. The other is designed to trap warmth and keep parishioners warm during long winter months. Though similar in layout and simplicity, one church is clearly an example of New England Regional architecture, and one is clearly and example of Southern Regional Architecture. Can you guess which is which?

--Your House is a Bimbo

2009-03-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

bimbo: noun. slang. A physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence. (wiktionary)

The post-war building boom is not singularly responsible for littering our environment with unsustainable houses. But when assembly-line technology met unprecedented market demand, suddenly suburbs sprouted all over the nation. These developments are not inherently bad, of course. They are, however, sites for the proliferation of unsustainable (and therefore unlivable) architecture. According to the New York Times, our most recent stock market decline may spell the end the McMansion. But will it kill a more insidious beast: the Bimbo House?

Like its counterpart in the world of dating, a Bimbo House is aesthetically pleasing but too stupid to make a commitment to. And yet millions of Americans have established long-term relationships with precisely such homes.

A Bimbo House is a home that has no natural relationship to its environment. On the prairie, it may be two-storied and defined by dwarfing gables. In the South, it may be massive and brick and a horrendous heat-trap. Its principle selling point is how physically appealing the structure is--so appealing that no one remembers to test for intelligence until its too late.

A Bimbo House is a home so dumb that it cannot support itself. An external heating and air conditioning unit is required to maintain a comfortable living space. A constant supply of expensive electricity is an absolute necessity. Were the power suddenly cut off, the Bimbo House would immediately become an unlivable chaos.

Why have Americans en masse signed themselves over to Bimbos? Because the alternatives were so utterly unappealing. For decades, anyone who did not want to live in a Bimbo House and opted for something more energy efficient had to live with glass and steel absurdities. Most of the homes showcased even today boast features that the average home buyer shirks without a second thought. "Really? An entire wall of glass brick? How imaginative. Straw bales instead of timbers? Amazing. Do you have anything more conventional?" No one wants the Geek, so they settle for the Bimbo. Neither is ideal, but at least your friends are jealous of the Bimbo.

Continuing to build only Geek Houses presumes that energy efficiency remains a niche market for that portion of the population with post-graduate degrees and Whole Foods shopping bags. But if you are paying attention to global demand for oil, you won't need a crystal ball to understand one fact: the bargain basement energy prices that made Bimbo Houses appealing are disappearing for good. You can't be a sugar daddy when doing so breaks the bank.

This is not a global warming issue. This is not a political issue. This is a supply-and-demand issue. The supply of oil is a limited resource. We have so successfully exported our American way of life to Eastern Europe, India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico and countless cities around the globe that those people are beginning to demand precisely as much energy as Americans presently demand. What's the first lecture in First lecture in Economics 101? Constant supply + increased demand = higher prices.

The economy America (and by extension, the world) depends on requires disposable income in the pockets of US citizens. We learned in 2008 that, as oil prices increase, the cost of gas increases. The cost of heating and cooling your home increases. Even the cost food increases. We learned a dangerous truth in 2008: We've reached the Affordable Energy Tipping Point. Oil is cheap right now because the global economy is shrinking. The moment the economy picks up, the price of oil will skyrocket. That will seize disposable income in America, and the domino effect will throw us back into recession. Short of an overhaul of our energy system, we're not going to see economic growth on the scale of the past generation ever again. This is not politics. This is not environmentalism. This is economics.

The average American is becoming aware that the dependence on a constant price of oil makes him extremely vulnerable in a fluctuating commodities market. He is also becoming aware that energy costs are increasingly representing a disproportionate chunk of his expenses. The average hard-working, red-state, conservative American is suddenly interested in precisely the same energy savings the environmentalist has been for some time now, though for entirely different reasons. He is not interested, however, in the glass and steel absurdities the market is offering. He does not want the Geek House. He can no longer afford the Bimbo House.

What will the market provide to fill this void? The answer is a house that is both attractive and intelligent. The answer is a house that the average American is proud to display, but can afford to inhabit. A house that looks tailored to its environment, that evokes traditional and appealing aesthetics, that exists in harmony with its environment. The answer is a New Regionalist House.

--A Piece from Friedman

2009-03-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

This piece in today's New York Times touches on precisely the idea governing this blog: the unsustainability of present modes of construction are a problem now for more than just the environmentally-conscious. The problem has, through this recession, reared its ugly economic head.

--Relevant Quotations

2009-03-08T04:55:00.000-07:00

These were found on the previously mentioned USDA Forest Service Building Guidelines site. They are very meaningful statements and encouraging.

“Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for.” —Frederick Law Olmsted

“Architecture and landscape design are not words on paper.…Situated in microclimates on the ground, connecting past to the future, palpably there, alive with flora and fauna, they are the stage for life itself.” —Douglas Kelbaugh

“The relationship of man-made structures to the natural world offers the richest and most valuable experience that architecture can show.” —Vincent Scully

“Organic building is natural building: construction proceeding harmoniously from the nature of a planned or organized inside outward to a consistent outside....” —Frank Lloyd Wright

“If we build in sensible ways, responding to the opportunities and limitations afforded by each site, the light, climate and topography, we will also begin to reinforce the distinctive character of our region, deepening its residents’ sense of place.” —Jeff Limerick

“A natural environment of this magnificence and grandeur has had a humbling impact on the region's architecture.… This is not the climate for loud and glamorous architecture.” —Douglas Kelbaugh

--USDA Forest Service Building Guidelines

2009-03-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

A reader has passed along a remarkable resource: The USDA Forest Service Building Guide. Here is an overview from that document:

The built environment, as used in this guide, refers to the administrative and recreation buildings, landscape structures, site furnishings, structures on roads and trails, and signs installed or operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, its cooperators, and permittees.

The elements of the built environment constructed on national forest lands and grasslands, or those used for administrative purposes in rural areas, towns, and cities, shall—to the extent practicable—incorporate the principles of sustainability, reflect their place within the natural and cultural landscape, and provide optimal service to our customers and cooperators.

These elements will:
• Be located, planned, and designed with respect for the natural systems in which they reside.
• Aesthetically integrate their natural, cultural, and experiential context.
• Contain design elements, including appropriate signs, that reinforce a national agency identity.
• Emphasize efficiency of energy and materials consumption in construction and operation.
• Serve as premier examples to interpret conservation of natural resources and sustainable development.
• Create environments for people to enjoy and gain increased appreciation for the natural environment, and in which employees work productively, experiencing the connection to the resources they manage.
In so doing, the USDA Forest Service built environment will strengthen and reinforce the image of the agency as an international conservation leader.

If you are an Alabamian and have not visited any link so far, please, please, PLEASE visit these two following .pdfs. They are indispensable!

South-East Coastal
South-East Mountain

And finally, the entire USDA Forest Service Building Guidelines (The document can be somewhat difficult to navigate. The materials most relevant to readers of this blog are found in chapter 4).

--Essential Reading

2009-03-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

Any and all of these resources are essential reading!

Passive Cooling and Your Local Climate

Two Identical Floorplans: How minor, conscientious modifications to the design of a single-family home can save 70% of energy costs. Some innovations are technological, but many others involve reclaiming such traditional ideas as galvanized roofing and extended eaves.

Cooling Your North Carolina Home

Landscaping for Energy Efficiency

Cool Metal Roofing

The New Ecological Home: How design alterations and make standard homes more environmentally friendly.

The Solar House: Passive Heating and Cooling

The Passive Solar House: The Complete Guide to Heating and Cooling

--An Absolutely Essential Study

2009-03-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

This study is concerned with energy savings based not on a better envelope or better appliances but rather better design. The study proves that architecture suited to environment can eliminate the need for a cooling system in certain climates.

--Mother Earth News

2009-03-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Mother Earth News (particularly its subsection on Green Homes) is another interesting and relevant website. Take note, though: much of the information available is specialized to that niche audience of exceptionally committed environmental advocates addressed in earlier posts. Be that as it may, some articles are of paramount importance and will be linked to directly in future posts.

--Why The Waters Matters

2009-03-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

The Waters, in a suburb of Montgomery, Alabama, is an essential case study for the assumptions of New Regionalist Architecture. Visit the website to find out why.

(1) Standardized, controlled architecture is the norm--and buyers are responding positively. A buyer has extensive limitations on how self-expressive he or she can be, and yet a phone call to building office reveals that The Waters is one of the only developments in Montgomery where construction is ongoing. The conventional wisdom that buyers avoid strong architectural review boards is trumped by the hard evidence.

(2) All houses at the waters have traditional foundations and metal roofing. These methods are no longer standard in home construction, yet buyers are responding positively. Where else are traditional foundations and metal roofs standard in a development? Perhaps a few isolated houses in the country where individuals own land and build to suit their own tastes--but an entire development? And the houses are selling like hotcakes!

(2) The architectural style of the development is romantic and fantastic. There has never in history been a city or town where the elements found in this development naturally and organically arose to form a community like the one at The Waters. Beach-style cottages, a New-England style church, and a New Orleans-style town square are all beloved in their unique settings; the Waters has juxtaposed these elements and in so doing created the most marketable community in central Alabama.

Thus, from The Waters we learn three points: People will consent to distinctive architectural standards, they will accept somewhat unusual building techniques, and they will look favorably upon romanticized environments. The Waters proves that a development with a distinctive sense of place can more than succeed.

Now, imagine if romance were not the only appeal, but also an almost non-existent energy bill? The lots couldn't be sold quickly enough, I assure you. New Regionalist Architecture will make that possible.

--Old Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Typical Southwestern Native American Pueblo

Typical Eastern Woodland Native American Wigwam

Typical Northwestern Woodland Native American Longhouse

Typical Plains Native American Teepee

Each of the above structures presents architectural innovations of regional Native American populations. The structures provide comfortable shelter, use local materials, and are adapted to the needs of the cultural lifestyle. To be successful, New Regionalist architecture must do the same.

--The Green Home Guide

2009-03-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

An important resource for home-builders to consider: The Green Home Guide

--Two Key Propositions

2009-03-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

One of the oldest and best sites concerned with an approach to construction similar to that of New Regionalism is greenhomebuilding.com.

Take note, however, of a key difference: this wonderful site and many like it are concerned with green home building for green's sake alone. While this is an admirable endeavor that propels innovation and makes strides toward sustainability, it is unlikely to become commercially viable in the coming years. Most homebuyers are not interested in novelty when it comes to the single largest investment they'll ever make.

Do we allow sustainable and green construction to remain a niche market, accessible only to a privileged or committed few? The belief of New Regionalism is that the market simply will not allow this. We cannot afford to keep building houses the same way we have done since the post-war building boom began--not simply because of the effect on the environment, but also because skyrocketing energy costs and changing climate patterns will choke the life out of average homeowners trying to heat and cool their homes.

The hottest years and strongest storms on record have occurred since the turn of the millennium. Oil prices hit crippling highs in 2008. (Indeed, a case could be made that a not-insignificant factor contributing to the present economic tailspin was the cost of gasoline and its effect on the ability for sub-prime mortgage holders to make their payments. Many had mortgages they could never afford, but surely more than a handful only became unaffordable once gas prices hit $4 per gallon). Irrespective of one's belief about global warming, a person with keen business insight must see that building homes to use less energy makes good financial sense.

The problem with that business insight lies in finding precisely how to create homes that use less energy without making the upfront cost of those homes discouragingly high. According to Forbes.com, the average lifespan of an American mortgage is three to five years (though the present recession will likely skew future numbers higher). Even assuming that a family will stay in a home for five years, few (if any) models involving such innovations as better insulation, double-glazed windows, geothermal heat-pumps, solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels can make the savings from the innovation equal to or exceed the cost of the installation within the lifespan of the mortgage.

Various responses to this conundrum exist. Can we encourage people to build one home and remain there for a longer time by promoting schools and communities that a family is unwilling to trade for a larger home in a different location once the bank account allows such a move? Can government provide tax incentives for more sustainable construction? Such responses ebb and flow without radically altering the present landscape.

To truly be competitive in the market, a home-builder must do what has seemed impossible. He must construct a home defined by two key propositions. His home must use less energy without tacking on prohibitive upfront installation costs. The builder cannot rely on tax incentives alone to make the greener home afforadable. Rather, he must somehow integrate those costs or eliminate them in order to sell a greener home at a price comparable to conventional homes. But the home must also possess popular and conventional aesthetic appeal. Hyper-modern design might be innovative and interesting, but homeowners overwhelmingly tend to reject them when considering their own home purchases. Too much glass in unusual places, conspicuous solar panels, and the use of unusual building materials make potential buyers afraid of being labeled "That Tree-Hugger up the Street".

The New Regionalist blog is committed to the idea that both of these propositions can be met via a dedicated examination of traditional regional architectural expression. Handsome, desirable, energy-efficient homes can and will be a marketable reality. Coming posts will prove this point.

--The Energy Challenge: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in 'Passive Houses'

2009-03-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

From the New York Times: Innovative homes pioneered in Germany are encased in such an airtight shell that barely any heat escapes.KEEP READING

--Old Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

A Typical Frontier Sod Dugout

This home, though unlivable by modern standards, is notable for its use of immediately available materials and its integration to the environment. The low, shallow-pitched roof diverts both heavy snow and strong winds common on the Prairie.

A Typical Adobe Pueblo

The mud-brick (or "adobe") walls of this south-western style dwelling not only make use of immediately available materials, but also serve as thermal mass--cooling the living space during the day and warming it at night.

--The Distinctive Elements of New Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-02T16:27:00.001-08:00

The academic study of regional-specific architecture has been propelled largely as a response to growing global dissatisfaction with American economic and cultural dominance. Those who question a post-war American hegemony--particularly Europeans--have lamented the flowering of Golden Arches across their landscape. (see this conference, for instance).

The roots of the idea may spread deeper, however. One might argue that Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan participated in this movement through their quest to create an architectural style characterized by strong relationship to local environment and building materials. Their quest evolved from such movements as Bauhaus and Soviet Constructivism--each concerned with subverting the forms of architecture in favor of more pressing, functional concerns. The need for this realignment, according to its proponents, stemmed principally from dissatisfaction with cultural emphasis on form alone in such styles as Neo-Classical, Italianate, and Victorian.

Of course, New Regionalist architecture is in many ways a conscientious return to an earlier, unconscious model of construction. When Native Americans built long-houses in the Pacific Northwest and collapsible tee pees on the Great Plains, they were employing locally available resources to construct living spaces that met immediate needs.

When Puritan settlers in New England sided and roofed their houses with split-shakes, the decision was based not on appeal to abstract design, but rather to the abundant felled trees from land they were making arable.

When Spanish missionaries in the American Southwest sought to quickly construct churches and schools to convert the native population, they found adobe a ready material well-suited to the hot days and cold nights of desert climes.

When American sod busters traveled West and began to transform the Great Plains into the American Bread Basket, they constructed dugouts from stacked grasses until funds made possible more conventional buildings.

Certainly most of these architectural techniques lacked glamor; accounts of life in Kansas dugouts are abysmal, as are stories about cold night breezes slicing through the gaps between logs in frontier cabins. To suggest a return to a frontier mentality in architecture is absurd. Even so, Frank Lloyd Wright was on the right track when he sought to design homes and buildings that better interacted with their environment.

Why? The European academics have until recently suggested that a vigorous emphasis on regional distinction is the best means by which to oppose the homogenizing influence of globalization. The virtue of regional identity, then, is precisely that the identity is regional and not global. This same spirit insists only one locale can produce Champagne or Emmentaler or Koelsch. This spirit is reactionary and ultimately neither powerful nor profound outside the scope of its reaction. Globalization will continue, and maybe a few McDonald's in Bavaria will be half-timber, but the effect will be little else.

The rising price of energy, however, will move the emphasis on regional architecture from the reactionary to the norm. This is what makes New Regionalism, "new": not unconscious use of ready-to-hand materials, not reactionary opposition to another culture's dominance, but rather a measured and calculated understanding of how energy, climate, and the human built environment can and ultimately must interact.

In an ideal world, this relationship would be studied for its own sake. But history shows Wright's architectural novums remained mere novelties. "Falling Water" may be a tourist destination, but few architects of American tract houses are invoking that model in their contemporary, profit-driven designs. For better or worse, the market dictates what constraints must be considered by those who design the most numerous structures across the American, and indeed now the global, landscape.

That market-driven focus has left a built environment familiar to most Americans: identical restaurants, hotels, and gas stations at every interstate juncture across the nation. This is entirely logical from a business standpoint: uniformity not only cuts down on costs associated with design expenses, but also fosters a brand image that eventually translates into a feeling of comfort within those familiar with the constructed environment of the brand. (Cracker Barrel restaurants readily embrace this union; their locations are billed as spots Where Food Meets Comfort). Such emphasis on quick and simple construction spread also into other built dimensions of suburban America. The ranch houses inhabited by so many Americans were designed to be put together with a slab, four walls, a roof, and an HVAC system able to regulate the comfort within that little box. During the post-war boom, demand for housing so outstretched the available supply that such a rapid method for new home construction was precisely what the market required.

The next series of architectural innovations will also be driven by market concerns. The limiting factor will no longer be the speed with which houses can be thrown together, but rather, the costs of skyrocketing energy prices. Local building materials will increasingly be selected as a means to control the upfront price of transporting materials cross-country. Furthermore, the long-term costs of energy use will be mitigated through innovative, energy-saving techniques.

Truly, advances in technology will make existing homes more energy efficient. Sprayed insulation, double-glazed windows, energy-star appliances and such new technologies as geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, and home photovoltaics will cut down on the costs of heating and cooling homes in the coming years. But these technologies are costly and will not be readily affordable for some time; they remain largely a niche market.

Other technologies, however, are free. These are the systems developed through thousands of years of direct interaction with habitable environments. This blog will seek to explore how capitalizing on such technologies can drastically cut costs associated with new construction without sacrificing comfort or creating undesirable upfront costs. A happy by-product of New Regionalist architecture will be a greener, more sustainable way of life, built on design that is better suited to geography and climate.

--Old Regionalist Architecture

2009-03-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

A Typical Southern Dogtrot House

Visible in this picture are three principle elements: open breezeways that promote cooling airflow through interior rooms, traditional foundation construction that also promotes cooling, and a large porch that creates pockets of shaded, cool air to be drawn into the house by airflow.

A Typical New England Saltbox

Visible in this picture are three principle elements: a central fireplace to warm the entire house simultaneously, an over-sized southern-exposed roof to catch the sun's warmth and to divert cold northern breezes, and small windows to limit heat loss.

--Eisenhower's Interstate and the Erosion of Regional Architecture

2009-03-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

When Americans visit Europe, invariably they comment on the "quaint" nature of the towns and villages they encounter. Interestingly enough, Europeans have their own fascinations when visiting the United States. Imagine a country spread from one ocean to the other in which any night of the week you can buy your dinner at an identical McDonald's before spending the night in an identical hotel room. Imagine walking into that room and knowing precisely where the lightswitch is; the lightswitch is in the same place in every such room at every off-ramp in the country!

Europeans are amazed by the uniformity blanketing the US, and Americans are captivated by the distinctive regions of Europe. From the UK down to Greece, cities and towns arose organically over time with attention to the materials and climate of their location. Half-timber houses in Northern Europe, thatched roofs in cool climes, open courtyards in the Mediterranean, and breezeways on sunny islands not only take advantage of local building materials, but also heat and cool most effectively for their particular environments. These materials and techniques arose over thousands of years of intimate interaction with the local environment.

At one time, this was also somewhat the case in the United States. New England was covered with saltbox houses to conserve heat and divert snow; the South was dotted with antebellum mansions and dogtrot cabins, each designed to promote breezes and break the oppressive heat. Such architectural styles were well suited to their environments, but their construction was halted originally by the Depression and then by the diverting of resources during the war years.

Following this period, the transfer of assembly-line construction techniques learned during the war effort to the post-war economic boom meant those cookie-counter fast food boxes and motels popped up everywhere--as did countless little square houses on little round streets. While this boom was a boon to the economy, we are only now learning that attaching an HVAC box next to any sort of construction may not be the most sustainable form of long-term development.

The New Regionalist will be guided by the assumptions found in the above commentary. This blog will be devoted to exploring ways in which a New Regionalist approach to architecture could help promote a greener--and altogether better--future.