Advances in green technology and a fondness for reused or reclaimed materials have led to more innovative and creative sustainable products for the home. As a new addition to Green Architecture Notes, we will be posting a new section on products that we find to be perfect examples of how green IS beautiful, practical, and inspiring.  [...]

Cork is a fantastic, 100% natural, material that has been used as an insulting material for years, although is not well known by most of the people working on sustainable and zero carbon projects.  So what makes this material special?  Cork is the bark of Cork Oak (Quercus Suber), collected every 9 years and later [...]

If you’re remodeling or building a home, you know that California has some of the toughest energy codes in the nation, and getting tougher every couple of years.  From a lighting perspective that means that lighting must be highly energy efficient. Luckily, we have a tiny new player in the world of lighting: Solid State [...]

People often ask me to recommend the ‘greenest’ hardwood flooring option, expecting me to tell them to use reclaimed wood or Bamboo, and they’re shocked to hear my answer. After years of witnessing the impacts of our purchasing decisions on forests worldwide, I tell them to use FSC-certified tropical hardwood. Reclaimed wood and Bamboo are [...]

In this video, lighting designer and author Randall Whitehead IALD discusses energy-efficient lighting design.  With several examples of LED and fluorescent lighting, Randall dispels the myth that a compromise in design must be made when choosing these efficient, long life alternatives to incandescent lighting. Click here for the video.

  It is an old world answer for modern heating concerns.  Masonry heaters, also known as Finnish fireplaces, have been used for centuries in Europe and now are gaining notice here as a heating alternative.  Faced with rising prices for fossil fuel, and at the same time environmental restrictions on charming, but smoke-spewing wood-burning fireplaces, [...]

  My kitchen uses LED retrofit kits by Progress Lighting that are also fitted with Asian inspired trims by Juno Lighting to add little dazzle at the ceiling line.   The Green, Green Lights of Home  I am a lighting designer, who specializes in residential interior and exterior projects; working with kitchen & bath designers, [...]

Masonry heaters have been used in the colder parts of Europe for over two hundred years. Interest is generating in the United States because they are GREEN. The concept has been gaining popularity over the past 20 years. A standard fireplace needs to be fed continually to keep heating the home.  Not so with a masonry [...]