Living the Green Life: The Smart Home Exhibit Demonstrates Modular Sustainability
by Jonathan McGaha | July 31, 2008 12:00 am
Imagine living in a home that’s so green, it can save you an extra $1,253 in energy costs a year. Lights, heating, air conditioning, audio and security can all be controlled by an automated system. Vegetative green roofs help keep your home cool, while photovoltaics provide enough energy to power the home.
While this may seem to be far off for most people, it is very much a reality. Visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago can experience what it would be like to live in a truly green home. In honor of the museum’s 75th anniversary, Michelle Kaufmann, a leading green architect and sustainable design expert, was commissioned to create a fully functioning home on the property that explored green building and would give museum visitors a chance to really experience what it would be like to live in the home of the future.
The exhibit, Smart Home: Green + Wired,marks the first time a museum has built a fully functioning exhibit home of this kind on its grounds. The home has also been named “Chicago’s Greenest Home” after a comprehensive review of the home’s plans, materials and design in relation to the city’s Chicago Green Homes Program.
“The home will not only provide a forum for people to experience the beauty of sustainable building but will also demonstrate the latest in eco-friendly materials, systems and smart solutions that people can implement into their own daily lives,” Kaufmannsaid. She founded Michelle Kaufmann Studios, Oakland, Calif., in 2002.
The prefabricated modular home configuration designed by Kaufmann is called mkSolaire. Manufactured by All American Homes at its Decatur, Ind., warehouse, the 2,500-square-foot (232-m2), three-story mkSolaire consists of seven modules-five comprising of the house and two making up the garage. The custom house was “test fit,” or soft set, at the factory prior to being transported to Chicago and set up on the foundation on the museum’s east lawn.
“From roofing, to rain shield barriers, to tile flooring materials composed of recycled goods and even uniquely engineered floor joist systems,this project has provided us with a better understanding of what it means to engineer and build an environmentally friendly home,” said Dwight Martin, quality assurance manager at All American Homes.
According to Kaufmann, the mkSolaire floor plan was chosen because it is designed specifically for healthy living within an urban environment, especially narrower lots like the ones found in Chicago. “Within that footprint, we made design decisions that enable us to create a warm and lofty light-filled interior space, which you won’t find in a typical row house sharing two of its walls with its neighbors. It’s a perfect example of ‘designing big versus building big.'”
Five key principles-smart design, material efficiency, energy efficiency, water efficiency and healthy environment-guide the decisions regarding the design, construction and day-to-day operations of the Smart Home. All principles are incorporated throughout the home and demonstrate sustainability and environmental conscientiousness in action.
Guided tours of the home allow visitors to view the latest innovations in reusable resources; smart energy consumption; eco-friendly landscaping; and clean, healthy living environments. The mkSolaire features the most current eco-friendly materials; high-performance, energy-efficient building systems; a living roof; a solar electric generation system; a rain catchment system; plus the latest innovations in home technology available.
An Eco-Friendly Roof
The mkSolaire’s green roof features the Green- Grid Modular Green Roof System by Weston Solutions Inc., West Chester, Pa., that includes lightweight GreenGrid modules that arrive on-site preplanted and ready to install. The 155 2-foot by 2-foot by 4-inch
(0.6-m by 0.6-m by 102-mm) modules, equaling 620 square feet (58 m2), are planted with native plants.
The GreenGrid modules are installed on top of a white, 0.045-inch-
(1-mm-) thick Mule-Hide TPO membrane by Beloit, Wis.-based Mule-Hide Products Co. Inc. The membrane is fully adhered to the Mule-Hide FR Deck Panel. Adjacent to the Mule-Hide Living Roof is a STAYLOC Architectural Metal System and matching coping trim from American Construction Metals, Beloit. The Mule- Hide TPO system is Cool Roof Rating Council rated and Energy Star listed.
Gary Zigler, metal manufacturing product manager at ACM, said that the approximately 400-square-foot (37-m2) STAYLOC standingseam roof system contains up to 25 percent recycled content. The 24-gauge steel panels are finished with a Kynar cool roof paint system by Valspar, Minneapolis.
The GreenGrid modules are made of 100 percent recycled material, and when the roof eventually must be replaced, the GreenGrid modules, TPO membrane and metal roofing and trim are all fully recyclable, keeping them out of landfills.
The TPO membrane and metal roof and trim are cool roof colors of white and slate gray that will help keep the home cool, reducing the need for air conditioning and the associated energy use, cost and emissions. Where exposed to the sun, they reflect most of the sun’s energy rather than transferring it into the home,and most of the absorbed heat is released back into the atmosphere.
The vegetated roof helps insulate and shade the home, and the plants transpire, cooling the atmosphere around them. The GreenGrid system also helps alleviate stormwater runoff and, therefore, reduces the associated costs through the retention and detention of rainfall and detention of runoff from the roof.
“Concern over rising energy costs and climate change have certainly sparked interest in vegetated roofs,” Kauffman said. “Visitors to the Smart Home will have an opportunity to see one firsthand and learn about how a vegetated roof system can help reduce cooling costs and manage storm water runoff.”
The Green Scene
The exterior is a combination of long-lasting, low maintenance Ipe wood siding and cement siding. Energy-efficient windows and motorized skylights from Pella Windows and Doors Inc., Pella, Iowa, help optimize energy efficiency, natural lighting and ventilation for the home, minimizing the need for artificial light and air conditioning.
The home also features three 12-foot-(4-m-) wide NanaWalls in the main living space-off the living room, the lounge area and the dining room. When open, the NanaWall extends the sense of space while acting as a passive cooling system, letting in fresh air and breezes. When closed, the Energy Star-rated NanaWall provides natural lighting, retains energy and is weather tight against extreme hot and cold. The system is provided by NanaWall Systems Inc., Mill Valley, Calif.
“The whole home is just infused with [light] from top to bottom,” Kaufmann said. “An abundance of natural light does more than increase a home’s energy efficiency-it makes the home feel better and seem bigger. It makes just standing in that home a joy.”
The home’s solar power comes from UNI-SOLAR PV film by United Solar Ovonic LLC, Auburn Hills, Mich. According to Kaufmann, the film is a great technology in the world of solar that’s cheaper, easier to install, more durable and does a better job of capturing UV rays than traditional PV panels. The panels absorb the sun’s power, transforming it into usable energy.
Wired magazine served as the technology and automation advisor for the Smart Home, identifying and securing “smart” systems with a focus on energy efficiency, homeowner awareness and great design. An in-wall iPod dock allows residents to play music in any room of the home through the NuVo multi-room audio system and in-ceiling speakers. The Life|ware automation system can turn on lights, raise shades, cue music and more. A touch screen tracks electricity and water consumption on a real-time basis. Motorized skylights open when detectors sense a cool breeze, while Botanicalls digital sensors in the houseplants gives family members a call when they need water.
In the kitchen, the oak veneer cabinets are made from FSC-certified wood, no-VOC wood sealant and formaldehyde-free particleboard substrates, and counter tops are a blend of recycle wood fiber from demolition sites that are bound together with a water-based resin formula that is both petroleum-free and VOC-free. Energy Star stainless-steel GE appliances further reduce the amount of energy used. A NatureMill tabletop electric composter is 100 percent recyclable, but it also recycles its weight in waste every 10 days, diverting more than 2 tons (1.8 metric tons) of waste from landfills over its life.
Other features of the home include: a heated radiant sub floor from Warmboard that leads to lower water temperatures and heats the room from the floor up; shower tiles made of recycled wine bottles; an Ecosmart vent-free fireplace that burns ethanol instead of fossil fuel; LED light fixtures throughout the house, including a chandelier in the dining room that is made from recycled light bulbs; an ash dining table made with wood from a fallen tree; bamboo flooring; a custom designed staircase that features welded steel fabrication with white ash treads and handrail; and much more.
While a typical Chicago bungalow would cost $3,230 for energy annually, the Smart Home only costs $1,977 per year.
“Our firm’s mission is to make thoughtful, sustainable design more accessible because the easier it is for people to go green, the better our chances of saving this planet,” Kaufmann said. “I love that this exhibit shows how going green is becoming easier. When visitors see all the green alternatives, I hope they’re encouraged to think about how they live and the decisions they make every day. Hopefully, people will leave with ideas to incorporate into their own homes, as well as inspiration to imagine, innovate and invent sustainable solutions of their own.”
The Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit is principally sponsored by ComEd and People’s Gas. Additional sponsors are American HondaCo. Inc., Dominick’s and Motorola Foundation.
The Museum of Science and Industry is located at 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. The Smart Home exhibit is open daily through Jan. 4, 2009. For more information, go to www.msichicago.org.
Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
-Architect: Michelle Kaufmann Studios, Oakland, Calif., www.mkd-arc.com
-Prefabricated modular home: All American Homes, Decatur, Ind., www.allamericanhomes.com
-General contractor: Nurcon Inc., Chicago, www.norconinc.com
-Modular vegetated roof: Weston Solutions Inc., West Chester, Pa., www.greengridroofs.com
-Waterproofing and roof deck: Mule-Hide Products Co., Beloit, Wis., www.mulehide.com
-Photovoltaic film: United Solar Ovonic LLC, Auburn Hills, Mich., www.uni-solar.com
-Standing-seam roof: American Construction Metals, Beloit, Wis., www.abcsupply.com
-Coating: Valspar, Minneapolis, www.valspar.com
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/living-the-green-life-the-smart-home-exhibit-demonstrates-modular-sustainability/