Day 1 of my
Green Homes workshop at Ranken Technical College. Each day we have a different theme and what better way to kick off the week than with Architecture. After a talk on LEED certification and Energy Star ratings, they went on a "scavenger hunt" trying to identify samples of green building products. Most of the products were made from recycled products, like milk cartons, tires, newspapers, and even old jeans. You could use these products to make countertops, decks, floors, or sinks. I thought it was fascinating to see how nice they could make a squashed plastic bottle look.
Right before lunch we took them on a tour of one of the neighborhood homes Ranken carpentry students are building. They try to use green construction methods on these homes, like placing the studs on 24 inch centers so that the windows fit right into the spacing (I'm assuming this means all the windows are 24 inches wide). They use a really cool product to build their basements. They pour a concrete slab, but then use preformed panels to construct the basement walls. The panels are made with aluminum studs and are pre-insulated to R-13 (that basement was a nice cool temperature - big contrast to the 90 degree heat outside). The basement walls get caulked to the floor so that they don't leak. The instructor told us they can put up an entire basement in about 4 hours (after the slab is poured) and start building the first floor the same day (big time difference from a traditional poured foundation).
In the afternoon, they got to design a downtown loft. We gave them a floor plan and some little cutouts for furniture and fixtures. It was interesting to see the different designs, though a lot of people didn't seem to understand the concept of scale. Courtney's one-bedroom condo is about the same size as the drawing we gave them, but several people came up with 2-bedroom, 2-bath designs. You might have to step on the toilet to get into the bathtub, but they were happy with it.
