It is striking that despite the many green building going on in the US that there still remains some blaring gaps in our knowledge and available products. I encountered another of these gaps recently in my search for a good front door for a Brooklyn Passive House style brownstone. I was looking for something super …
Fans are inherently energy efficient since they reduce your need for an energy hog air conditioner. But for those of us constantly pushing the envelope we want to know what the most energy efficient fan is. Right now my favorite is the Sycamore Fan. The main reason I love it is that it is a classic example …
A client of mine just came back from England raving about her friend’s natural paint company Annie Sloan. Paint, a substance you put onto another surface, usually acts as protection and an aesthetic. Natural paint can be many things but needs to have the same basic elements: a binder, a base and optional color. The …
Every Brooklyn brownstone should have a gray water system to feed the toilets, green roof, living wall and garden. Unfortunately there are few systems to choose from. They range between $2,000 and $7,000 for the unit not including running the extra drains from the shower, bathtub, sink and washing machine. Right now in the US …
Green Home NYC is featuring Gennaro Brooks-Church as a guest speaker. He will be speaking on two key concepts he coined: Build It Forward and the Zero Brownstone. More info below on the event next week. August forum: Working with contractors (AIA credit)August’s forum will discuss working with contractors in both residential and commercial projects. …
Broadly speaking there are two kinds of green building books: one looks to the latest scientific innovations for solutions and the other looks to revive ancient techniques. Lets call them the futurists and the traditionalists. In the futurists camp you have high tech, in the traditionalists you have low tech. Futurists design houses with complex …
I just uncovered a New York Times article on earthen floors. It is cool because it mentions the person who is consulting with Eco Brooklyn on some earthen floors in Brooklyn and Harlem. Her name is Sukita and she is very knowledgeable in earthen floors. Here are more cool pics. We have done some experimenting …
