Building Museum Exhibits Sustainable Modular House | |  | | | The National Building Museum has opened a year-long exhibit on sustainable design. |
With the support of NAHB, the National Building Museum has opened a new year-long exhibit on sustainable design featuring a modular home by architect Michelle Kaufman. Ten of her Glidehouses have been built, ranging in size from 672 to 2,016 square feet, including one inside the museum. On display through June 2007, “The Green House” show recently served as a backdrop for green building stories on CNBC featuring interviews with NAHB Green Building Subcommittee Chair Ray Tonjes, a custom builder in Austin, Texas. “It’s important to tell this story because our country has evolved — America wants to build sustainably,” said Chase Rynd, the museum’s executive director. “Consumers want well-designed products for their homes to be ecologically responsible — and the industry is responding. This exhibition is the tip of a very large iceberg that includes all design, from architecture and building materials, to furniture and appliances — even dinnerware can be ‘green.’” The exhibit includes a heliodon, which visitors can use to figure out when and at what angle sunlight will pass over a building, as well as a detailed look at the materials and furnishings used in the Glidehouse. Educational programs for children and adults have been created to accompany the new exhibit, including tours of nearby green buildings, seminars and discussions. In addition to exploring green building, the exhibit spotlights the changing nature of modular housing, a low-cost alternative to traditional stick-built homes that has been able to increasingly focus on quality control and sustainability since fewer materials are wasted on the site. The price of a Glidehouse — including the design, trucking materials to the site and the actual construction (excluding the solar panels featured in the house at the museum) — is estimated at about $132 per square foot if erected on a level lot. The house also has a long, narrow footprint to facilitate cross ventilation and windows placed to maximize solar benefits. The walls and roof are constructed of structurally insulated panels (SIPs) filled with soft foam insulation. The concrete countertops contain recycled newspapers and fly ash, the floors are bamboo, the water heater is tankless and low VOC paints are used throughout. All the appliances are ENERGY STAR® rated. The National Building Museum was created in 1980 and is housed in the old Pension Bureau building, an Italian Renaissance-style gem that was built in 1887 and had fallen into disrepair before the museum was founded. For more information on green building resources available from NAHB, e-mail Calli Schmidt, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132.  | | The price of a Glidehouse, excluding solar panels, is $132 per square foot if erected on a level lot. |
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