Concept and design

Prefab homes make choosing an Architect designed LEED or Passive House high performance house design easy. All the important choices of non-toxic Sustainable materials have been made, add a building lot & in a few months you're home & dry (& warm!)… Prefab Home kits are ideal for Passive House or LEED certified homes …

Design ideas and home-durability measures to help families and homes withstand a changing climate.… Future-proofing homes: Our society has a collective trust in its commercial building industry to provide us with homes that we assume meet some realistic standard of resilience. They do to an extent, but a very minor ex…

Planning and budget tips for home building and renovating… 1. Make a realistic budget and schedule: This is, without a doubt, the starting point to a successful build - don’t underestimate the time and money it will take to complete a build or renovation. Even professional contractors tend to underestimate the costs a…

Advice from a green building project manager: how to develop a construction budget and stick to it.… The following is an interview with Patrick Ranger, General Manager at Belvedair, a construction company specializing in the design and construction of green homes. Patrick is trained in business administration and info…

Despite the good intentions, Earthships in cold climates can't work because they contradict the laws of physics.… I'm not the Mike Reynolds who invented the Earthship, I'm the Mike Reynolds who thinks Earthships in Canada and other cold climates are a bad idea. A coincidence of names; just putting that out there so Th…

Understanding building science basics will help you design and build durable and efficient wall systems, in this instance LEED Platinum v4.… LEED Platinum V4 Wall Design: Building Science  The wall we designed for the Edelweiss house, Canada's first LEED Platinum V4 Home is best categorized as a 'REMOTE' wall, a hig…

Professional energy raters use HOT2000, an energy modeling program designed to determine the energy consumption of buildings. Mindscape Innovations is a sustainable design firm from Kitchener, Ontario that has developed a free online version for the rest… Energy modeling is a process for determining the approximate en…

All about energy efficient home design - building enclosures, product selection and energy efficiency strategies.… The  principles of green building: A high performance, energy efficient home may include features like geothermal heating, wind power and solar panels, but these are not the defining features of green liv…

Tiny Houses – Washington State Paves the Way for Tiny Home Eco-Villages & minimum building codes for their construction… WA Paves the Way for Tiny Home Eco-Villages: Tiny houses, also colloquially referred to as tiny homes, are both an increasingly attractive and affordable housing option as well as a trending alterna…

Intelligent home devices allow you to control your home remotely, and send you notices of problems… So what is a smart home? When paired with intelligent and connected home devices, the phones that most of us carry in our pockets can make our homes safer, more comfortable and durable, and reduce our home energy consum…

Are you wondering how to build a Tiny House for living in cold climates? How much insulation does a tiny house need? See plans for the best tiny house on wheels that we've ever seen.… Are tiny houses a good investment? That depends on how you want to live and how well they are built. Small homes are more affordable a…