People of down:2:earth!

I have the honor of joining the down:2:earth team to blog about the latest news and information on sustainable living. To tell you a bit about myself, I’m originally from Bolivia and migrated to Canada at the age of four. We moved back and forth every few years until the end of high school, at which point I enrolled at the University of Toronto to study International Development. As my interests continued to evolve, I changed gears and came to Boston to study Interior Architecture and Sustainable Design at the New England Institute of Art. Like many of you out there, I didn’t feel that my two cents would help much to protect the environment…

…until I took a course that focused on the use of alternative sustainable materials for construction! Over the semester, I found myself compelled to track down companies, materials, and designs that were inherently sustainable, and grew interested in volunteering and participating in any way that I could. This is precisely how I came across d2e and fell in love with their philosophy!

Come to think of it, it’s pretty incredible that I now get to share my daily research on sustainability with the readers of d2e!

So what am I going to blog about? Sustainable architecture, furniture, materials, technology, and the companies that are driving these trends forward. If there’s anything specific you would like us to blog about, feel free to send us an email at info@d2eboston.com. I also encourage you to comment on any of my ramblings, because this is a community after all, and my two cents plus your two cents can really add up!

In the beginning…

I’d like to begin this journey by talking about Sustainable Architecture. It is absolutely mind-blowing to think about the impact that building construction has on the environment, the resources and the energy they consume, and the raw materials they use in often inefficient and irresponsible ways.

But 21st century architects and designers are already starting to evolve. Today there are hundreds of companies and organizations that focus on the development of sustainable buildings . They aren’t all beautiful, and few if any are traditional, but together these designs are bringing us ever closer to a responsible future.

With that in mind, I’d like to share a couple of my favorite sustainable homes with you. I love that there are enough out there to start an entire blog, and these are just a few of the more notable projects out there (stay tuned for more in the weeks and months ahead…)

Let’s start locally with “Big Dig House”. As it’s name suggests this home used 600,000 pounds of recycled material from the Big Dig, made mostly from steel and concrete. It was designed by Single Speed Design Firm located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Second on our list is Eric Doub from Ecofutures Building (Colorado). He designed and currently lives in this sustainable home with his family, and accurately named the project ”Solar Harvest”. Not only is the house is oriented south to receive maximum exposure to the sun, but it is powered by solar electric roof panels, has no heating system, and yet manages to keep warm in the winter time… even the built-in hot tub!

Third on the list is North Carlton Green House in Melbourne, Australia, designed by Zen Architects. This home has a rooftop garden where the owners store rainwater in tanks and reuse the grey water from the gardens. Because of the glass walls and big windows the house gets a lot of natural light, eliminating the need for artificial lighting during the day time. How’s that for sustainability…this home is greenalicious!

Fourth on the list is a Cottage at Jarvis Lake, Ontario. This A-frame beauty is also powered by 8 solar panels producing 5500W of power – enough to power the whole house. It also has a wood fired Jotel stove as a heating system, and it receives spring fed water directly from Jarvis Lake. Beautiful all year round and no electrical bill…yay!

Last but not least on this week’s list is a true minimalist home designed by Jun Igarashi in Hokkaido, Japan. This box house has a smaller ecological footprint than your average home. Mind you, when 130 million people live on an island that’s smaller than California, you have to think small!

Well, that wraps up our sustainable homes for the week. Tune in on Monday for the next installment in our sustainable buildings series, and don’t forget to write in and comment to let us know what you think!

Sustainably yours,
Nathalie Zegarra