The Decatur plant of All American Homes is building what it expects will become a very popular exhibit showcasing green housing technology at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry this year. To help mark its 75th anniversary year, the museum plans to open in its backyard a functioning, three-story modular home designed to demonstrate unique technologies for the 21st century and highlight ways people can make eco-friendly living part of their lives.
The home, conceived by Michelle Kaufman Designs, will form the exhibit "Smart Home: Green + Wired." The museum plans to have the exhibit open by May 8 and available for tours through Jan. 4, 2009. Visitors touring the 2,500-square-foot home and grounds will be able to view the latest innovations in reusable resources, smart energy consumption, sustainable gardens and green roofs, and clean, healthy-living environments in a contemporary setting.
With every conceivable bell and whistle, from solar panels to the latest in radiant floor heating, the exhibit will serve as a prototype to "show what we're capable of," said Art Breitenstein, vice president of sales and marketing at All American. At least 1.5 million visitors are expected to see the exhibit.
The project marks the first time the museum has built a fully functioning exhibit home with "smart" technologies incorporated throughout the house, including a full-home automation system that allows homeowners to control heating and cooling, window coverings, lighting, security sensors and cameras. A touch screen will track electricity and water consumption in the home on a real-time basis. The technologies will demonstrate how a home can inspire lifestyle choices and be equipped to save resources while residents are away, as well as keep a home and its occupants protected.
The home's module construction will be under way for two or three more weeks on one of the All American assembly lines in Decatur. In the plant's precision-engineered and climate-controlled environment, the company says it is able to build homes 60 percent faster and in a more environmentally friendly way than traditional construction on site. The company doesn't know exactly how much green technologies can save homeowners on energy costs. But the materials chosen for the exhibit home — from the windows to the fixtures to the counters and floors — will demonstrate sustainable engineering and eco-friendly design.
Guests will see how stormwater runoff can be collected for landscape irrigation; how toilets can be equipped to use waste water from the shower and bath; how spray-in foam insulation can create a completely sealed building, resulting in better air quality, a quieter home and greater energy efficiency; and how recycled bottles and fly ash can create bathroom countertops. "This is a special house, a very high-priced house; it has the best of the best," Breitenstein said. " It's more costly than a standard home, but there's a lot of new technology in there that's one-of-a-kind that if it becomes accepted by consumers, like anything else, the price comes down of course."
The company, which is coming out with a catalog featuring green technology for homes it builds, doesn't necessarily expect much impact on its business this year from the exhibit, because "the housing market is terrible right now; to say it's not robust is an understatement, it's worse than that," Breitenstein said.
Source: Business Weekly