I wanted to build an "Eco" home, but I didn't want it to look like one: No geodesic dome, walls of free-form rammed earth or cave built from old tires, please. My husband and I drew a preliminary design, showed it to an architect friend and he said hurtful but true things—like, it looked like a big barn.
I went out to our land and sat. I saw that although we wanted a house that felt like it fit right into the landscape, our site hadn't even taken advantage of the best views of the woods.
We talked with architects and studied books. We learned that each main room should receive air and light from at least two directions. And that no one uses porches unless they are at least 6 feet deep. We made ours 7 feet deep. Bill McDonough, the famous eco-architect, said a house should feel like "Fred and Ginger could dance their way through it." With circulation in mind, we decided to design our house based on the human body. If you look at the layout from above, it looks like a person lying face up on the ground. The kitchen is right where the stomach is, the stairway that Fred and Ginger could dance down is the lungs, the only steel beam runs right down the center where a spine would be and there's a little fireplace right where the . . . Use your imagination!
For materials, we made a list of eco-priorities, with local at the top. We live 15 minutes from Slatington, Pennsylvania, a major source of slate, in an area also rich in rocks and trees. That made it easy to choose traditional stonework, stucco and local wood. I began to think of our house as a "Native Eco-Home." We had stopped trying to fit someone else's style and come up with something entirely our own.
Designing a Native Eco-Home
Orient the house to best take advantage of the climate, the sun and the views: Most windows should be south-facing for maximum sun in winter. Make fewer windows on the north side, where winter winds are harsher.
Design for as much natural light and ventilation as possible. Use double-glazed, energy-efficient windows with "low-e" coatings. We won't have air conditioning. Instead, a panel of windows at the roof of the house will suck out the hot air in summer. Almost every room has cross-ventilation.
To conserve energy, insulate and make the house air-tight to eliminate drafts.
Explore your best alternative-energy sources. We are connected to the grid, but to generate electricity, we'll have solar photovoltaic panels. A solar water tank on the garage roof will supply our water heater and radiant heat pipes in the floor. We'll get toasty with a super-efficient, wood-fired Russian Tile Masonry Heater.
Use local, environmentally sustainable materials whenever possible. We built with local stone and wood, reclaimed wood and FSC-certified new wood.
