ECOHOUSING FOR THE MAJORITY MARKET AT THE EDEN RENEWAL COMMUNITY

摘要

In the search for ecologically sensitive and sustainable lifestyle housing, the conventional real estate market has little to offer. If a homebuyer would like to have an ecohouse, it is usually necessary to work with an architect to custom design and build a house. On the other hand, if a buyer wants to add "green" features to a market offered house, high cost premiums are charged for including them. There is a rapidly growing interest from consumers in ecohousing and both of these situations (a long custom design/build process or higher than normal costs) dissuade the common person from living their wishes for a sustainable and healthy home. This paper presents the proposed implementation of a model project to provide market rate ecohousing while giving consumers an array of choices to tailor such housing to then-personal desires. The project, named Eden Renewal, is an urban infill consisting of 12 residential living units on a 0.66 acre (0.27 hectare) vacant lot in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is well recognized mat successful integration of ecofeatures into a building project requires mat sustainability be emphasized as an important goal at the inception of the project. Upfront attention to sustainable design results in many ecofeatures being delivered at no cost or little cost increase over conventional building practices. Furthermore, using strategies of site density, small building floor areas, simple modular construction and prefabrication and open floor plans, a substantial part of the project budget can be saved and used to purchase higher cost sustainable building elements. Renewable energy systems like solar photovoltaic and solar thermal important investments that help to fulfill sustainability goals while providing ongoing returns on investment to building owners.