A Firsthand Look at the Magnolia 2300 Yurt – the First Energy Star Home in British Columbia

Many people dream of building their own home, but few actually bring that dream to fruition. If you're looking for some DIY inspiration, look no further than this post -- Inhabitat writer Rachel Ross proves that building a beautiful, healthy and sustainable abode is well within your reach. Rachel, who is a design consultant and co-owner of <a href="http://mandalahomes.com/about-us">Mandala Homes</a>, worked with her husband on creating not one, but a series of sustainable and <a href="http://www.energystar.gov/">ENERGY STAR</a> rated <a href="http://inhabitat.com/7-cozy-tipis-and-yurts-that-make-you-feel-right-at-home/">yurts</a> that fully embrace their beautiful wooded site located in <a href="http://www.discovernelson.com/htdocs/index.htm">Nelson, B.C.</a>, Canada! Jump ahead for Rachel's first-hand account detailing both the process and design, and get motivated to get your own <a href="http://inhabitat.com/7-cozy-tipis-and-yurts-that-make-you-feel-right-at-home/">yurt</a> going!

Meet our house, the Magnolia 2300. It’s a three bedroom, round, passive solar home located in the lush green forest of Nelson, B.C. Canada. Myself, my husband Lars, and our 15 year old daughter, Poppy, designed our house using Slow Home principles for building houses that are healthy, designed to exactly fit the inhabitants and are gentle on the environment. The design was ‘slow’ but the construction process was quick because we pre-fab built the wall panels off-site with the insulation, doors, windows and siding included. Prefab-ulous! Some glowing benefits of prefab are a lower environmental impact on the site and less construction waste. It’s also fast. And a speed build to weather-tight means that no valuable building materials were adversely affected by rain and snow, which happens in many places, but especially in Canada through the winter. We started pouring the concrete for the <a href="http://www.logixicf.com/" target="_blank">ICF</a> foundation in the fall of 2011 and we moved in 150 days later.

The walls are an R34 and the ceiling is a whopping R66. The whole house has an <a href="http:// oee.nrcan.gc.ca/residential/new-homes/upgrade-packages/4998" target="_blank">EnerGuide</a> rating of 84. This means that our family can head to bed on a winter’s evening with the household temperature at 20 degrees C (68 F) and when we rise in the morning the household temperature is 19 degrees C (66 F).

This is the first ENERGY STAR Qualified home in B.C., which means that it uses 30% less energy to function as an incredibly comfortable living space. As well as the passive solar design, 10” thick walls and “tuned” windows, it’s wrapped in a 3” blanket of <a href="http://www.roxul.com/home" target="_blank">Roxul</a> Rock Wool. It has a continuous air sealed envelope that includes the insulated doors and Low E windows.

It’s a ROUND home. The house literally “embraces” the human beings who reside within it. Lars has been building round homes since 2000 and this home is his culminating dream home. “Every aspect is designed to perfectly match the needs of our family”. Why round? “Living in the round is a way of living more closely with nature. Everything around us is round- the moon, the earth, eggs in a nest, the trunks of trees. As a lifelong nature enthusiast, I want my home to connect me with nature, not separate me from nature.”

The countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms are patterned bamboo finished with beeswax. The wood used for the timberframe details is locally sourced fir and the wide stair planks are crafted from salvaged wood. There are connected outdoor rooms and every room has natural lighting from skylights and suntubes.

No living trees were cut down to create the space to build this house, there was a natural round opening in the forest of grand fir trees that perfectly fit the 31’ diameter round center with 12’ wide radiating wings of the Magnolia design.