latest straw bale prefab wall system from fuentesdesign

The marshall plan has gone towards prefab for the straw bale panels, a good way to control costs and get around the weather issue- stay tuned!

fuentesdesign on the Boulder Solar Home Tour! (again)

Generation House, Shawn Lortie Photography, http://www.shawnlortie.com/ Fuentesdesign Natural Architecture has completed over 100 residential green building projects in Boulder City and County since 1999 including new energy zero energy homes, straw bale additions, and complete remodels.  Our goal is to create legacy projects worthy of being passed on to the next generation. Fuentesdesign ZED-2 home on the Boulder County Solar and Green Home Tour next week fuentesdesign's ZED-2 zero energy retrofit/addition at 820 33rd Street Come see fuentesdesign's LEED Platinum home next weekend on the annual Boulder County Solar and Green Home Tour.  Anticipating the future of the neighborhood and sustainable home design, Boulder ZED-2 is a new near zero energy home near Boulder's mean home price.  Solar hot    water, 5kW Photovoltaic system, filtered heat recovery ventilation for constant filtered fresh air.  See some more photos here. Stay warm this (well, maybe next) winter with Passive House from Fuentesdesign! Zero Energy Straw Bale Home on Sugarloaf in Boulder County by fuentesdesign With energy use 1/10th of the average house, the German-born passive house standard takes over where American passive solar left off in the 70's.  Getting to zero energy can be affordable today without fancy or expensive construction - Fine Homebuilding magazine calls it "Green Without the Gizmos" because passive house uses super insulation, air tight construction and a low carbon approach to where the house gets its energy source.  Basically you could heat a 2000 sf house with a hairdryer.   Every building in this country should meet this standard in the next 20 years - Time to get to work!  http://architecture2030.org/ Fuentesdesign straw bale house recently published in book: Prefabulous and Sustainable: Building and Customizing an Affordable Energy-Efficient Home. With an intro by Robert Redford, this book by author Sheri Koones details the latest in green residential prefab building throughout the country, including fuentesdesign's own straw bale house at 9900 feet elevation (to the first floor, yes exactly).   A super efficient wood masonry heater with an integrated pizza oven keeps things toasty in the winter. The home also features earthen plaster exteriors, standing dead log frame, and was also featured recently in the Denver Post. Friendly Reminder! If you haven't already, now is the time to get an energy audit and get your house weatherized for the winter! Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that buildings are responsible for 48% of greenhouse gas emissions annually and 76% of all electricity generated by U.S. power plants goes to supply the Building Sector [Architecture2030]. https://www5.xcelenergy.com/OnlineViewandPay/2010_August/CO_Audit/CO_Audit.jsp Brian Fuentes, AIA, BPI, Colorado licensed architect #400716 info: blog projects process fire update: We have friends who either lost their home in or are seriously affected by the recent Four Mile Fire. As a reminder, we provide free consultations on the design process with Boulder County, and are providing customized services to our fire-affected clients based on need, please let us know how we can help!   Several existing fuentesdesign projects, including one straw bale home on Sunshine, survived the fire with minimal damage, likely due to thick exterior natural plaster in combination with the fire resistive requirements of exterior construction of soffits, decks, and roofs required by Boulder County.   Best wishes to everyone in their rebuilding efforts. contact: fuentesdesign Phone: (303)523-4654 brian@fuentesdesign.com

www.fuentesdesign.com

Boulder Mountain House Update from fuentesdesign

Here are some renderings of our latest energy retrofit/aesthetic and performance update project. enjoy...

Agriburbia

Yes, i have been waiting for someone to do this a long time!!! green zoning means making agriculture, permaculture and human culture everywhere we have developed already - not in some far off utopian place, but right in your own backyard, literally.

http://www.agriburbia.com/

This combined with increased density and services within walking/biking distances means no need for BP's oil to drive or eat. Check out this site, these people rock.

This was also in the Denver Post, and the Lakewood EDGE, they are doing it on the south side of Green Mountain, where i grew up! (Go Rams) The new Solterra development was unfortunately a greenfield project where i used to ride sweet jumps on my mountain bike, but at least Lakewood City planners crushed it and supported the project there which was also the site of the parade of homes, sustainability to the forefront! Look out boulder, the rest of Colorado middle class suburbs are about to put you in the hurt locker. We got roots!!

oh yeah, and check out their powerpoint.

Latest boulder addition renderings from fuentesdesign

A concept sketch for a two story addition and aesthetic and building performance upgrade for a house in north boulder. This project should also have some energy and envelope performance upgrades included.

fuentesdesign's first book publication

While we've made all the local press over the years, none of our work to date has been published in a book....until this year - It was our log cabin home - a Colorado spruce standing dead log frame home, wrapped in straw bale with a masonry heater and backup radiant heated concrete floors. The book is called Prefabulous and Sustainable: "Building and Customizing an Affordable, Energy Efficient-Efficient Home" You can read more about the book at the author's website. There are some great architectural projects by some well known architects in this book and its been a great addition to my own personal library and for any potential clients, I would definitely recommend it as a good introduction to green building. Check it out!

Stair rendering for Project X

This is the stair 3d model we developed for the Harvey residence currently under construction on 504 Geneva Ave. It uses a waterjet cut steel plate, with a natural waxed finish and FSC certified teak built up treads. The floors are concrete with in floor radiant heat in commercial metal decking. We have a lot of exposed steel and the 15 degree angle to maximize solar electric production off the PV system creates some interesting geometrical and spatial configurations we are trying to take advantage of in the design.

The concept is very simple, but with a tweak in the geometry, it really opens up the courtyard and defines some subspaces much better than if the project were on a cartesian grid. My tip of the hat to Aldo Van Eyck!

Studio Shed taking off

fuentesdesign has been helping our partner prefab company Studio-Shed with architecture since JHK's first shed that he built in his own backyard, and now we're shipping product out to different states and really getting a great response! Here are a few renderings for projects I have been working on that are semi custom - using studio shed components and processes but building larger buildings than are listed on the website. Small, infill projects are not only green by reducing sprawl, but also by allowing more people to do more things in less space. The future!

Cities for Happiness! from the roots of Curitiba to Bogota

Well, its back, urban planning and a new vision of an ecological city as a place of ecological health, social justice, beauty and happiness! Great article showing that the real goals of a city are to bring its people together and provide opportunities for happiness.

http://shareable.net/blog/can-we-design-cities-for-happiness