Thursday, February 25, 2010

Redhook Green On The Road

Interest in zero energy construction is building all over the country and with it interest in Redhook Green.


Garrison Architects and I will be presenting the Redhook Green Project at the 9th annual Architectural Digest Home Design Show at Pier 92 (55th street at the West Side Highway, NYC) starting March Friday March 18th through the Sunday March 21st from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  We will be presenting new graphical and model representations of the building designs and systems.  We will have samples of some of the materials planned to be utilized and additional information from manufactures.  The team involved will be on hand to answer questions.  We expect the show to really begin to have a sustainable/green focus.


Running concurrently to the Home Design Show (same admission) will be the Go Green Expo, the nation’s leading eco-friendly trade and consumer showcase. Uncover new ways to live and work in a greener world through expert panel presentations and 250 + exhibits in areas such as energy, transportation, food, health & beauty, home & building, business& electronics and fashion.  Hope to see you there.


Jay

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Breaking Radio Silence

Sorry about the increased time between postings, we had been waiting for additional feedback from the team before we presented you with these two views of the finalized design.  Changes have been made to respond to suggestions from the structural and mechanical engineers, to simplify construction, reduce cost and generally hone the design.  


Some specific changes you may notice include: 

We decided to open the second floor south wall to expose the steel substructure and sheath it in translucent glass to provide overall protection, shading and privacy.  Our thermal modeling showed that it would not change the temperature balance in the heat or cold, so we thought it looked great and it added to the consistency between the second and fourth floors.

The fourth floor canopy was modified to allow the overall design to provide a more symmetric relationship with the lower structure and simplify the construction process.  Instead of having a separate canopy (as provided in earlier drawings) to fabricate and install separately, it will now be integrated as part of the modular structure.

The schematic diagram below is the visualization of the power generation and HVAC system I described in my post "getting to zero" a few weeks ago.  While it might look like a plate of spaghetti, this diagram actually has been simplified to leverage the combination PV/thermal solar collectors to provide electrical power to the POWER TO LOAD  (better know as the house) and hot water to the thermal storage tank.  That hot water will be used to heat and cool (via the absorption chiller) the house with fans blowing over the coils.  A small electric powered boiler and demand hot water heater will provide backup.


Last night I presented the vision for Redhook Green as well as these renderings to a group of my new neighbors in Redhook at the The Redhook Economic Development Association meeting.  Steve LaMorte, a RHED board member wrote me today, "As you can see, there is a good deal of interest coming from the neighborhood for your respective projects (the other being the Beautiful Earth Group). There's a palpable level of excitement that is growing around the changing face of Red Hook. We believe your projects are going a long way in helping us define the new identity of Red Hook and we're hopeful that they will aid in galvanizing other like-minded environmentally conscious entrepreneurs to also find a home in this very special and unique neighborhood."  I am glad to be part of this great community!