i am from PORTUGAL
I NEED ALL INFORMATIONS ABOUT “LEED” FOR IMPORTATION DIS PRODUCT
TO IMPOR TO PORTUGAL, I NEED FORMATION ABOUT THIS PRODUCT
IF IS POSSIBAL TELL ME

I was most taken with the variety and beauty of the elements used to build and furnish the home. The bathroom floors are cork, the walls & counters are a kind of treated paper (!), etc. I would love to live in a home like this.

1. What was the “Construciton Cost? of the home? My guess is that Eugene, being in the west coast, might have some pretty high property values. It would interesting to know the cost-per-square-foot. Seeing a typical 2000 s.f. home would roughly run $90-$150 per s.f. I did a 1600 s.f. pre-fab shipping container home that was approved by build-it-green and LEED for about $150/s.f. Of course it wasn’t “Platinum”, but it works towards the argument that LEED = expensive.

2. Yes, as a previous comment has stated, it is a lovely design, maybe not a traditional/conservative style but this is a fairly typical style to the pacific west. and, it’s not far off from some of the 50′s mod. homes seen in may cities across the country. I think the truly telling argument would be: what kinds of tactics are architects developing to make the McMansion more eco-friendly? Being an architect myself, it’s a huge challenge, because many of the materials and products that McMansion builders want aren’t very sustainable. Developers are like CEO’s of Walmart, they just look at bottom line. I think it’s up to the building industry to get in gear and demand more of their clients (whether its a developer or a single family). There are many other factors as well.

3. It’s nice that architects are building these great show-homes that show-off how eco-friendly they can be. But an even more troubling concern that all home owners should address is, what are we doing to make our EXISTING homes LEED or more eco-friendly? Building new just adds more waste and sprawl. Sure, LEED has credits for reusing existing builidngs and existing locations, which probably contributed to this house’s “Platinum” rating, but instead of building new, let’s focus on fixing what we have. It’s the typical American mentality to just tear-down and start new. But that doesn’t some the big problem of waste.

Hey, Inhabitat, let’s have more articles focusing on re-using or retro-fitting so people can fix what they have instead of enticing them with these golden “carrots”…

As to the costs, be sure to include the “big picture” in that theSAGE qualifies for almost $26,000 in tax credits and utility incentives. Add to that the $100 per month utility cost SAVINGS (estimate is $33/month for total utilities) and that would buy about $20,000 in additional mortgage. And that’s initial MONETARY costs, not counting life-cycle costs or the positive effect this will have for my grandchildren.

We did use many reclaimed materials. And, as a demonstration home, we tried to pull out the stops to show what could be done. Overall sustainability WILL become mainstream; we believe that. It’s a matter of making it happen instead of waiting for it to happen.

Bill Randall, AIA
Architect/Senior Principal/LEED AP
Arbor South Architecture, PC

we’ve already seen buildings like this that showcase green tech. let’s go to the next level with reclaimed materials and see what innovation can happen with diverting things from the waste stream and reconstituting them as building materials.