CHICAGO, IL - The bathroom tiles are recycled wine bottles. The hardwood floors are sustainable bamboo. And the sprawling garden gets sprinkled with rainwater collected in 300-gallon barrels. From its recycled plastic deck to its solar-paneled roof, everything in and about the 2,500-square-foot home on exhibit just outside of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has been designed to show visitors and passers-by how easy it can be to incorporate environmental sustainability into their own abodes.
"We tried to look for ideas in every choice that we make in our homes, hoping that everyone who goes through it will be inspired to make some change on some level," said architect Michelle Kaufmann, who designed the SmartHome.
In fact, green housing is growing even while the overall market is suffering, said Nate Kredich, the council's vice president for residential market development. Green homes are catching on in Central Indiana, too, although more slowly than in other parts of the country, experts say.
A $920,000 eco-friendly home built by Castalia Homes in Carmel's Village of WestClay has more than 70 green features, including water-saving faucets, energy- efficient appliances and recycled siding. The 6,000-square-foot house will have a monthly utility bill of $100 to $175, said Frank Redavide, owner of Carmel-based Castalia Homes. For a conventional home of that size, it would cost nearly $600. Down the street, Lone Star Custom Homes is building a green home with geothermal heating and cooling, organic plaster on interior walls and a wastewater-recovery system.
Lone Star used to get one or two calls a month from consumers interested in building green homes. Now, it's a few calls a week, owner John Brooks said. This year, green building is expected to be 6 percent of residential construction, according to a survey by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics for the U.S. Green Building Council. That's up from 2 percent in 2005. "It is happening. But the industry needs to do a better job of getting information into people's hands when they're looking for it," Kredich said.
The goal of the Chicago exhibit, which runs through January, is to show visitors that saving energy and conserving resources are within reach of everyone, whether it's an entire house or a single feature, museum officials said.
The modular home, which Kaufmann said uses less than half the energy and a third of the water of traditional homes, includes a kitchen with a countertop composter and a sink made from concrete and fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal. Water from the bathroom sink is diverted to the toilet, where it is used for flushing. A bicycle in the children's bedroom must be pedaled for 30 minutes to charge a battery to power video games.
Visitors receive a resource guide that tells about the function of each feature, how it is assembled and where it can be purchased. The bicycle system, for example, was made from parts bought on an electronics Web site.
Jasmine Davis of Park Forest, Ill., who visited the home with her mother, said the exhibit gave her tips for her own apartment. "I like not making a negative impact on the Earth," Davis said. "It's got so much to be said for it, because it uses nature and natural materials," said Robert Richards, Santa Monica, Calif. "It's open. You bring the outside in, and you can even bring the inside out. It's a house built for humans. It's plausible in real life."
Source: IndyStar.com