Farm to Table

Farm to Table-Abra Berens

Buying water that was sourced in the South Pacific and then bottled in a plant that runs on diesel fuel because the local power grid cannot support such demand and then shipped across the ocean on a freighter and then shipped across land on a truck to your local convenience store that you probably drove to in a car doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, right?   Neither does eating corn in January or even eating an oyster from Washington state when you live in Boston.  But we do it anyways because it’s made available to us, and we can afford it (well maybe not the oysters).  Industrialized agriculture has made food affordable for most of us, but there are hidden costs involved in such practices that many of us remain blind to.  The way our food is processed today is likely more similar to the production of our iPods than the way our ancestors got their food.  Some of the costs of industrialized food production include water pollution, soil degradation, and deforestation, not to mention the immense transportation network needed to distribute the goods across the country and globe.  Additionally, there are costs to human health as well that include contamination due to unsanitary production facilities and chemical contamination due to the fertilizers and pesticides used during the growing period.  Of course, too, there is the experiential cost, that being how our food tastes.  Over relatively recent years there has been an explosive growth of interest among the general public in some of these issues.  One needs only to look at the organic foods market over the last decade to see evidence of this.  Unfortunately, however, much of this food remains priced higher than the average person is able to pay for.  One reason, unsurprisingly, is the fact that the large agricultural companies (and their government counterparts) are reluctant to changing the way we produce our food because of the complex system of financial agreements and subsidies already in place to support the current methods of production.

Meet our friends at Bareknuckle Farm in beautiful Northport, Michigan (www.bareknucklefarm.com).  Just coming off their inaugural season, Abra Berens and Jess Piskor have taken to fields to produce delectable edibles and raise animals responsibly, the way they should be.  Both with experience in the culinary world, Abra and Jess have a passion for what they do and this translates into creating ingredients that are healthy for us (and healthy for the land), fresh, and most importantly ones that taste good.  In addition to hosting local dinner events where they create masterful feasts from the fruits of their labor, they also have reached out to provide food to local restaurants and even some top-notch establishments further south in Chicago and Ann Arbor.  Having had the opportunity to experience the joy of tasting meals created in such a fashion has inspired Stuttio Workshop to envision how food production can be integrated into the home.

Most architects concerned with sustainable design have a fairly good grasp of the importance of sourcing local materials.  They recognize not only the fuel saving associated with such choices, but also the design potential of using materials that resonate aesthetically with their surroundings and also the benefit of the materials being naturally resistant to the climatic stresses of the local environment.  The Stuttio Workshop team, when designing the COEH project, asked, why stop designing at the materials used for the walls, floors, and roof?  Why not also consider the food on the table as well?  In an effort to think comprehensively about the notion of the local, we designed a kitchen that was immediately adjacent to and accessible to a small vegetable and herb garden on the roof of the sunken bedrooms below.  Especially for a community with such a rich agricultural heritage like Greensburg, we felt it was important to promote smaller scale agriculture that would be manageable (and enjoyable) for the residents.  The benefits of being able to create delicious meals without going to the grocery store are coupled with an increased awareness of the food production process that is often lost upon us in this age of industrial agriculture.  This, we think, makes perfect sense.

Thermal Mass: Functional + Efficient + Educational

According to the U.S Department of Energy, heating and cooling account for 56% of energy use in a typical U.S. home.  To significantly reduce this number, the Stuttio Workshop team began researching alternative methods of heating, including passive solar heating techniques.  The two most common passive solar heating systems are direct gain systems and indirect gain systems, both of which rely on similar principles regarding the collection, storage, and distribution of solar energy (heat).  The basic idea of thermal storage is that a material such as concrete (or masonry or water) takes a long time to heat up, and an equally long time to cool down.  This inherent material property is advantageous for passive heating systems in that the material will slowly heat up during the peak sunlight of the day, and then slowly release (via radiation) this stored heat into the space, well after the sun has set and the heating demand in the house is greatest.

Direct Gain System

A direct gain system, the most simple and cost-effective passive solar heating strategy, is defined by transparent glazing on the south face of the building that allows winter sunlight to penetrate into the space and to strike the floor surface.  Typically, this floor surface is of a material with a high thermal storage mass, like concrete.  Most often, moveable insulating panels will need to be designed in a direct gain system so that heat loss does not occur through the glazing during evening hours.  In both direct and indirect gain systems, an overhang must be designed on the southern façade to limit the solar exposure of the wall during summer months when heating is not required.

Indirect Gain System

An indirect gain system utilizes a thermal storage wall on the south façade of the building.  This wall, typically concrete, masonry, or water, is placed directly behind insulated glazing, with a small airspace between the two surfaces that when coupled with a vented storage wall can also utilize convection (in addition to radiation) to distribute heat throughout the interior of the building.  These walls are often referred to as Trombe Walls.  Conceptually speaking, the main difference between a direct and indirect gain system is simple: occupants reside IN a direct gain system and NEXT TO an indirect gain system.

Thermal Diagrams

Stuttio Workshop ultimately decided to pursue an indirect gain system so that our chosen wall system of Virginia Limeworks EMU could actually be used as a passive solar heating component.  If we were to choose to use a direct gain system, the wall type (either the wood HIBs or the ICFs) would be less important as a thermal storage mass since the primary storage medium in a direct gain system would be the floor material.  Rather than allow our decision between the three given wall construction products to be an arbitrary one, our goal was to make every component and material selection of the house a deliberate design decision that would contribute to the overall performance and experience of the space.

Thermal Mass Wall Construction

After deciding to incorporate an indirect system into our building, we identified natural daylighting as a potential drawback of a typically constructed masonry Trombe wall.  Our research into thermal storage walls revealed that water, in addition to concrete and masonry, has excellent thermal storage qualities and for many years has been used as primary storage medium in thermal wall construction.  Seeing a potential opportunity to create an innovative revision to the traditional thermal storage wall of masonry, concrete, or water exclusively, Stuttio Workshop proposed a hybrid EMU/Water wall.  In terms of performance, both the EMU blocks and the water tubes(http://www.solar-components.com/tubes.htm) provide similar thermal storage capacity.  In terms of design, the transparent qualities of the waterwall tubes would allow us to modulate daylight through the south façade based on the requirements of the interior programs.  What results from this strategy is a mosaic pattern aesthetic reminiscent of an aerial view of the agricultural land parceling surrounding Greensburg.

Permanence: A Catalyst for Community Involvement

Creating desirable places to live is a crucial component of promoting sustainable choices across an entire community or city.  The longer residents remain in the same location, the more invested they become in the health of their surrounding environment.  Undoubtedly, a lifelong resident is going to foster greater concern for the health of the land and water of their community than someone who is simply a short-term resident.  This effect is increased even more with each long-term resident in that a critical mass is established among neighbors committed to being stewards for the environment they live in.  Therefore, it became absolutely crucial to the Stuttio Workshop team that our design would be one that would appeal not only to young homeowners, but a place that could adapt to inevitable changes (children, live-in parents and grandparents) that occur over the course of a family’s life.

Permanence Fosters Generational Flexibility

A building can only be permanent if it provides enough functional flexibility to accept a variety of different users over the course of its material lifespan.  To reduce the need for unnecessary demolition and reconstruction, we wanted to create a house whose lifespan, both materially and functionally, would exceed that of its occupants.  Greensburg, like many rural towns across the world, faces concerns associated with an aging population.  However, given Greensburg’s goal of reinventing it’s identity as a model community for sustainability building and living, it is feasible to imagine a growth in the younger population of the town.  The Stuttio Workshop house allows for a wide range of different living situations to be accommodated intelligently and comfortably.  The entire first floor of the house is designed for complete compliance with the ADA Accessibility Code.  Rather than having to retrofit a non-compliant house at some point in the future, the decision was made to incorporate a universal design strategy from the outset of this project.  The bedroom located on the first level of the house could easily be used as a study or home office if the residents did not need an ADA accessible bedroom or simply preferred to only utilize the two lower level bedrooms beneath the garden.

Permanence as Security

As Stuttio Workshop began developing ideas for our entry in The Chain of Eco-Homes Competition, the idea of permanence became one of the earliest topics of discussion for several reasons.  Most specifically to Greensburg, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado in 2007, permanence, as defined by the feeling of security and safety, would need to become a defining feature of the home.  All of us at Stuttio Workshop agreed that it wouldn’t matter how energy efficient our home would be if it could be easily destroyed in a storm.  With this in mind, our research involved looking at current storm shelter design specifications, earth-sheltered architecture, and wall systems that would prove durable during high wind conditions.

Typically, a storm shelter consists of a solid (often concrete) box buried completely underground.  Stuttio Workshop decided to explore the possibilities of using aspects of storm shelter design as defining features of our home, but then reinterpreting this typology to provide for a more pleasant living environment that combined the feeling of security with desirable natural lighting and ventilation.  Additionally, we asked ourselves, “If every house in Greensburg has a basement or a storm shelter, what happens with the soil that is excavated during the construction of these buildings?”  We decided that hauling the spoils from excavation away from our site would be wasting not only the fuel required for the hauling trucks, but would be wasting a tremendous design opportunity as well.  Ultimately, the decision was to use the excavation material to create earth berms that would insulate the house in both summer and winter, offer additional security during storms, and also create an opportunity for a more dynamic building section and landscaping strategy on an otherwise completely flat site.

Security From the Storm

Permanence as Antidote to Planned Obsolescence

Beginning during the Great Depression and reaching full maturity during the explosive growth of suburban culture following WWII, the idea of “planned obsolescence” emerged as General Motors overtook Ford as the largest automobile make in the world.  Planned Obsolescence is the practice of intentionally making a product obsolete after a relatively short period of time so that the consumer is obliged to buy yet another product at the end of the original product’s lifespan.  By introducing a new style of car every year or two (unprecedented at the time), GM established a new relationship with the public that was based primarily in the realm of image, fashion, and style.  It was no longer enough to just own a car. Now the question was what kind of car do you own.  The fascination with the automobile had matured from a technological one (in the early days of Ford) to a highly stylized symbol of cultural status (GM).  Ever since this transformation, the notion of planned obsolescence would prove to permeate almost every aspect of American life, from our cell phones to the houses we live in.  As a society, we have become accustomed to this disposable lifestyle with little thought about where all of this stuff goes after we buy a new replacement.  William McDonough’s book, Cradle To Cradle, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart, offers an excellent alternative to the traditional cradle-to-grave process that has defined our manufacturing strategies since the Industrial Revolution.

But for all of the countless strategies associated with sustainable design, many of which are difficult to fully grasp for the average person, one strategy could not be any simpler: create for permanence rather than disposability.  Surely, one of the most overlooked aspects of sustainability is lifespan.  In a world defined by an economic recession and the instant gratification afforded by electronic media, we often fail to look beyond initial costs and results.  Simply put, if our things (ubiquitous products and buildings alike) lasted longer, we would consume far less energy and resources.

What is Sustainability?

Without question, the concept of “sustainability” has increasingly become a part of the mainstream conscience of society. More than ever before, we see and hear of claims of being “green”, from the friend who just bought that shiny new hybrid car to the energy giants still invested primarily in the petroleum industry.  There are positives and negatives to such widespread interest in sustainability.  The simple fact alone that more people are at least talking about the interrelated relationship between basic human needs and their impact on the natural environment is encouraging. Beyond just a general awareness, however, the average person is without the resources and capabilities to fully understand how to have a positive impact, or at least a lesser impact, on the environment. Can you blame them? Unfortunately, this growing public familiarity of words like “sustainability”, “green”, and “eco-friendly” has allowed anyone looking to make a profit to exploit these terms through advertising tactics that can only be described as “green washing.” The sheer volume of theories and claims of sustainability made available to us, both good and bad, has made it difficult for the global community to decipher what is truly valuable and reliable information. For these reasons, among many others, a succinct and clear answer to the question, “What is sustainability?” still eludes most everyone, from the average citizen to the scientists, engineers, architects, public officials dedicating their professional lives to the subject.

At Stuttio Workshop, the question of sustainability is one taken very seriously, but also one that is approached uniquely through each design project. Through process of design, the constraints of each individual project (program, site, materials, budget, etc.) typically reveal opportunities that inspire the creation of a product that is meaningful, innovative, and appropriate. Rather than suggesting a universal approach to sustainable design, we seek to uncover the distinctive qualities of each project and from that emerges a strategy for sustainability that is truly optimized for the particular project.

ROOT / BREATHE / ENDURE places in Eco-Homes Competition

With 236 entries, from 13 Countries, and 36 US States, Stuttio Workshop’s ROOT/BREATHE/ENDURE entry placed second overall and 1st in the Enviro-Ment Masonry Unit (EMU) block wall construction category.  Honored to be recognized amongst so many inspiring designs, the Stuttio team looks forward to the next steps in realizing the project and continued growth in Greensburg.  It proves to be an inspirational road ahead.

Entry Perspective from Sycamore Ave.

Root/Breathe/Endure:  the process of living organisms to nest, flourish, & survive while in balance with their surroundings. Set amongst the Kansas landscape & extraordinary story defining the city of Greensburg, the proposed Eco-Home aims to live this process as a dwelling space, existing in harmony with the occupants & environment. Seeking permanence & security, the dwelling roots itself deeply into the site by repositioning the earth to burrow in, taking full advantage of the berms to insulate & protect. The integration of Enviro-Ment Building Systems nourishes the dwelling to life, allowing it to breathe and cycle heat energy as a living organism. Utilizing the thermal mass of a hybrid block & water tube southern exposure, the building naturally achieves a temperate environment & exceptional indoor air quality, subsidized only by natural ventilation & radiant flooring. The inclusion of solar pv panels, water capture, native plantings, & food gardens ensure the building will endure.

The Eco-Home project must prophesize sustainable living to the world while being compassionate to the concerns and needs of the local community:  permanence, generational flexibility, and aesthetic appropriateness.  The construction type and building design guarantee the longevity and safety of the full dwelling space.  Despite the physical nature of permanence, in regards to ‘building use’ this project maintains the generational flexibility needed for aging parents and grandparents to share the dwelling space,  providing full handicap accessibility to the entire first level.  The desire to provide an aesthetic that moves Greensburg into the future did not restrict the use of several reclaimed products, building materials, and landscapes that are typical to the Kansas vernacular.  The architecture is a harmonic blend of new and old.

As a sustainable organism and friend to the Greensburg community, the Root/Breathe/Endure dwelling proves to innovate, educate, and inspire the millions that believe it’s time to start living in balance with our surroundings.

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