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

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