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Sustainable Florida Beach House

We all have heard the term sus­tain­abil­ity, but what does it really mean?

Sus­tain­abil­ity takes into account a com­pre­hensive approach to design, not only in the types of mate­ri­als and fin­ishes we incor­po­rate in a project, but also in the over­all car­bon foot­print of those items.  An often-over­looked but impor­tant con­sid­era­tion regarding sustainability is how far a component or mate­r­ial has to be transported to the con­struction site. Other important factors include how the component is made, its lifecycle cost, and the energy used to cre­ate the compo­nent.  These are elements we should all con­sider with every design deci­sion, not only as Archi­tects, but also in our everyday lives.

The sus­tain­able Beach house pic­tured will take into account all of the con­sid­er­a­tions listed above and more.  Solar pan­els, rooftop gar­den and atten­tion to mate­r­ial selec­tion not only will help the envi­ron­ment, but also will add value and decrease the over­all cost of liv­ing for its future res­i­dents for decades.

This project is cur­rently under con­struc­tion and will be com­plete in May of 2014.  Please check back here for pho­tos and dis­cus­sions about its progress.