Orson Squire Fowler  (1809 – 1887) is a name which is seldom recognized today. Fowler popularized the ‘octagon house’ movement in America. In his book “The Octagon House: A Home For All”, published in 1848, he praised the advantages of octagonal homes over rectangular or square. Fowler believed octagon structures were less expensive to build, permitted additional living area by using every inch of space, received more natural light through their large windows, were easier to heat, and remained cooler in the summer. A spiral staircase in the center of the house led to the floors above. In the winter this would allow the heat from wood or coal burning stoves to rise, thus heating the upper floors. In the summer, the windows that surrounded almost the entire structure were opened to provide a breeze that would be circulated throughout the house via the stairwell as well.

Cover of the book "The Octagon House: A Home for All," and author Orson Squire Fowler

Fowler made his mark on American architecture. The idea of octagon-shaped houses swept the nation, and his book went through nine printings. Hundreds of octagonal houses were built from the 1850s in New York, New England, Wisconsin, and elsewhere, until the onset of the Civil War. About 2,000 octagonal house still stand today, with the most notable now museums open to the public.

Hardly surprising for such an independent thinker, Fowler was a forward thinking in more than just architecture: he proposed equality for women at a time when women had virtually no legal rights in the United States as well as children’s rights when child labor was considered quite acceptable in the fast-growing industrial world; he proposed ideas on how to discover the ideal mate, on marriage counseling, sex education and hydropathy. He also condemned the use of tobacco by men and tight corsets for women. He was also author of one of the more notorious sex manuals in Victorian times!

Back to the book: We like how Fowler suggested some general structural principles, and encouraged readers to invent the house details for themselves (somewhat similar to adapting a Deltec floorplan and making it your own!) Only a few home examples are offered, and apart from plans, the book has only two illustrations to show how an octagonal house might look. Fowler’s design foresaw a flat roof to collect rainwater, with built-in cisterns to collect and distribute the water (especially interesting in light of today’s sustainability movement), rainwater filtering using filter beds made up of alternating layers of sand and activated charcoal; central heating by distributing hot air from a furnace in the basement; flues, air ducts and speaking tubes built into the thickness of walls.

For Fowler, “beauty and utility were inseparable” (thus anticipating the famous “form follows function” of the designers of the Bauhaus movement in Germany and the United States in the twentieth century by quite a few years). The idea of octagon-shaped houses caught on at once, and his book went through nine printings. Fowler’s “monumental” four-story, 60 room house built during 1848–1853, Fowler’s Folly in Fishkill, New York, contributed to this nation-wide fad. Hundreds of octagonal houses were built from the 1850s in New York, New England, Wisconsin, and elsewhere, until the onset of the Civil War. About 2,000 octagonal house still stand today, with the most notable now museums open to the public.

Fowler was a man of universal reform who preached for education, temperance, and equality—a true a nineteenth century individualist in the Victorian age of orthodoxy, piety, and conformity. Dover republished the book in 1973, 125 years after its original printing, and included many black-and-white photographs of historic octagon homes.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Squire_Fowler#References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_octagon_houses
http://www.crookedlakereview.com/books/saints_sinners/martin12.html

We are pleased to share a summary of a recently published article by Ashley Halligan, analyst at Software Advice, entitled Breaking Down Net Zero Building: Reality or Wishful Thinking?—outlining the true stipulations of “net zero”, as well as considerations on the undertaking of a net zero project.

Halligan begins with the premise that it is essential to understand that net zero indicates that over the course of a year, a building has generated as much energy as it’s consumed.

The article goes on to provide an example of an existing facility—a 363,000 square foot distribution center for the food conglomerate McCormick—that underwent a sustainability initiative that ultimately resulted in not only zero energy consumption, but also ended the 12-month benchmarking period with a surplus.

Next, Halligan discusses tips from experts (including Brian Anderson, Founding Partner of Anderson Porter Design, Dru B. Crawley, former Commercial Buildings Team Lead for the Department of Energy and current Director of Building Performance at Bentley Systems, and Blake Bisson, VP of Sales & Marketing at Ekotrope) for those considering creating a from-scratch net zero building or project.

Halligan wraps up the article with Crawley’s thoughts on whether net zero is truly obtainable on a wide-scale.

We encourage you to read Halligan’s original article here.

Sarah Susanka’s book, “The Not so Big House,” started a movement in green home design, a reaction of conscience to the gradual rise in home size that had been going on since the 1970s, as populations shifted away from the cities into the suburbs. From the US Census we know that median home size grew from 1600 square feet of home in 1975 to just over 2200 square feet of home in 2005, just before the 2008 recession—a 35% increase. Yet home size is a trend that has begun to reverse itself in recent years, as more and more homeowners realize that the “American dream” has to do with quality as well as quantity, that the downside of a large home is larger maintenance, cleaning, and energy expenditures.

The “green” benefits of a home that has been “right-sized” to match the true needs of a homeowner’s lifestyle are many. Less square footage costs less overall to build, and savings on size could be put towards those “above and beyond” green features that an eco-conscious homeowner has always dreamed of. Less square footage also reduces the amount of disturbed land, reduces the amount of materials used—and certainly reduces energy bills.

The true size needs of a home differ, depending on the number of people who expect to live there and other expected uses of the home, so there is no one, “this size home is green, but this size home is not” limit.  However, “right-sized” homes tend to trend away from some of the things we saw in homes designed in earlier decades: forgoing extra, formal dining rooms, living rooms, winding caverns of practically-empty basements, and featuring smaller and simpler master suites. Avoiding hallways, and allowing foyer or entry spaces to double as reading nooks or other useful spaces, are also common practices. An overabundance of clutter can make a space feel smaller than in actually is, so having adequate space set aside for storage can also be a helpful strategy. In addition, considerations like future handicap access and other “age-in-place” concerns may also enter into a home right-sizing design.

Livable Outdoor Space

The nice thing about living in a mixed climate is that although we can experience both very hot and very cold temperature swings, there’s a large portion of the time when it’s quite nice outside. Where I grew up, in muggy upstate South Carolina, our screened-in porch off of the shaded north side was my favorite “room” in the house.  In fall, spring, and even summer evenings, it often served as a dining room, sitting room, and occasionally, a bedroom, offering this nature-loving child an opportunity to spend the night “outside” listening to the tree frogs and crickets sing into the night. One of the unexpected aspects of dorm life that chafed me the most was the simple lack of any kind of porch space. Having access to outdoor living space is a quality-of-life concern, as much as a green concern: the opportunity to experience the outdoors in your own home is, to many of us, nourishment for the soul—often under-appreciated when we have it but very conspicuous when it’s absent.

This Deltec home incorporates porches and decks to add livable space to the home. Although not conditioned, these spaces can be used for dining, entertainment, relaxation and recreation during pleasant weather.

Incorporating outdoor living space is one of my favorite strategies in a right-sizing home design in this climate, as outdoor rooms can make a floor plan feel larger, more versatile, and more like home.

You can’t talk green building without talking about insulation: it plays a critical function in energy efficient design. Insulation acts like a blanket or wool sweater for a house: it slows down the gradual loss of heat through conduction, thus allowing you to enjoy the warm house you used all those fossil fuels to create for longer, before more fossil fuel input is required to bring up the temperature once again. In the summer, insulation helps keep heat out of your home.

How Much Insulation?

Just like putting on a thicker coat keeps you warmer than a thinner one, more (properly installed) insulation has greater energy efficiency than less insulation—so the answer to the question “how much insulation is enough” is something of a moving target. In the olden days, homes were often built without installing any insulation at all. In the past two decades, however, most state building codes began requiring a certain amount of insulation in the walls, ceiling or attic, and floor. In the past decade, the codes have become stricter and stricter, requiring more and more insulation.

The goal of an exceptionally green house—what we’ve dubbed a “Pretty Good House” in our conversation—should be to exceed code requirements. That’s the “super” in “super-insulation.” The trick is to arrive at an insulation balance somewhere between “more is always better” and common sense, based on the goal of the home: to have much lower energy bills than standard new construction, perhaps as much as 2/3s lower. In Green Building Advisor’s original conversation on the “Pretty Good House” the “R10-R20-R40-R60” rule was posited as best for cold climates. (More R-value means more insulation.)

This rule means going with R10 insulation values underneath slab foundations, (building code often requires none), R20 insulation values in foundation walls (building code requires R10-R15), R40 in exterior walls (building code requires R13 to R20, depending on your climate, with R13 being the maximum R-value you can get with batt of that “pink stuff” installed in a 2×4 wall), and R60 in the attic (building code requires R38 in most “mixed” climates).

In mixed-humid climates, experience has shown me that values can be relaxed some, and I propose that a “10-15-30-50” rule is a good starting point: a minimum value that can be achieved at a relatively good cost payback. If budget and space permits, higher values in exterior walls would still make good sense. Innovations like a double stud wall or a raised heel truss help increase the amount of space one has in which to fit all of this extra insulation.

The Solar Homestead, Appalachian State University’s 2011 entry into the US Solar Decathlon, used super-insulated walls as a strategy to help the home reach “net-zero” performance cost-effectively. (“Net-zero” means consuming very little energy and producing what energy is needed with on-site renewable energy for a “net” energy bill of zero.) Home is built with double 2×4 walls allowing 8″ of space for insulation, double the amount of space allowed for wall insulation in typical construction. While a “Pretty Good Home” is not necessarily aiming to be a “net-zero” home, super-insulation is still a core green design strategy.

Insulation Alone is Not Enough

Most insulation products are only as good as the wall or ceiling in which they are installed—and are designed to be installed uncompressed, evenly, and often in an enclosure that is air-tight. Cramming an R19 batt into space for an R13 batt does not equal R19 walls, and a pile of loose-fill cellulose insulation in your attic does nothing to stop heat loss from any sections that are uncovered. Paying attention to the proper installation for each type of insulation product is absolutely crucial.

Another aspect of the building envelope that is often forgotten in the quest for maximum R-values is the total air-tightness of the home—as warm air leaking out and cold air leaking in are an entirely different source of indoor temperature change that must be corrected with a heating or cooling system. Pretty Good Houses should be exceptionally air-tight, with any and all cracks and penetrations in the exterior of the building sealed. Yes, this kind of detail work takes extra time and attention, but is just as important, if not more so, than the R-values you choose to put into your super-insulation.

Next up in our southeastern climate “Core Green Design” series: “Right-sized” Homes and Outdoor Living Spaces