michelle kaufmann designs

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Sustainable Industries has launched their 5th annual Top 10 Green Building Products 2010. They will be including the winners in their June 2010 issue and announce them during a live webinar on June 2010. I am nominating products and am a judge. So if you know of important products that are making the world a better place, please let me know. (email to info@michellekaufmann.com)
Please include the following:
-Product Name
-Who makes it
-Website
-What does it do to make it a Top 10 Product (please include specifics such as how much energy or water it saves, or how much it improves health, are there green rating points associated with it? how much easier or less expensive does it make it for people to go green? If there are similar products on the market, what makes this one unique?
Nominations will be accepted until March 31, 2010.

Kevin and I have rented a cottage in the Bahamas to be our “base camp” while we do day trips on the boat while I am researching climate-based designs and eco-resorts and homes for a few projects I am working on down here (I will be able to share more on those projects next month).

The cottage we rented is on an island with very few utilities. The island doesn’t have cars, most people just get around by boat. And the house is completely self sustained. The water we use for showering, drinking, washing, and the toilets is all from filtered rain water from the home’s roof. The house is raised up above sea level, this also allows the water storage tank to sit on the ground below the home. At first we were a bit skeptical to be drinking the water, but after trying it and realizing how clean it tastes, we now love it, and fill our SIGG bottles for the day using it.

All of the power comes from PV solar panels on the homes roof.  Although, the cottage actually doesn’t need that much power. There is no heating or cooling system, since the house was designed to either open up or close down depending on the temperature. Through the use of shutters with glass within them and screened panels behind, the home can completely open up during the day, providing both shade of these openings as well as maximum breezes. But at night or on cold days like yesterday, we just close up those openings.  There are high ceilings with operable shutters at the top, so the hot air goes up and out of the space.

The house also promotes composting which makes Kevin very happy since he has become composting-master at our Glidehouse.

Today we are headed out to a few islands to look at historical Bahamian homes that were designed to maximize shade and breezes, before homes became dependent on A/C. Some of the newer homes that look like they belong in New England or maybe Ohio are so unfortunate. The Bahamian government luckily is getting more involved with permitting for design review to encourage more climate-related designs, which truly end up also being more contextual to the historical architecture, just done in more modern ways.

Last week at the TED conference, there were many exciting talks and presentations. But none more game changing that this one. This is exactly what the green movement needs: Bill Gates.
Watch his 20 minute talk here on “Innovating to Zero”. Having Bill switch his focus to zero carbon is a huge endorsement, and he is someone who can really help make a difference.
Watch the talk HERE.

By Kevin Cullen

“I think I’ve died and gone to Pizza heaven!” So said one of our guests at a birthday celebration at our home last weekend. As someone
who was weened on pizza from a very young age, I had to agree.

A Long, Long Time Ago, before Twitter, cell phones and even video games, when families actually used to hang out together, a big Friday
night at my house was making a Chef-Boy-Ardee Pizza and watching the Friday Night Movie. That was back when there were only three TV
stations on the tube, if you were lucky. Fast forward light years ahead and the pizza, like the mind numbing assortment of stations now
available, is only a distant cousin of it’s pepperoni or cheese variety ancestor.

Homemade pizza not only offers an endless variety of fresh ingredients to smother your favorite dough with, it is also fun and engaging way
to enjoy a meal. Plus, it can be a great way to use leftovers from the fridge. There are few things more intimate than preparing and
sharing food with close friends; the added touch of needing and spinning pizza dough (like our friend Stacy above) and topping it with your all-time favorite delectable treats brings it to a whole new level. Combine all of the
above with a a tasty organic wine or rum drink, it doesn’t get much better!

We were somewhat distraught to learn, after some rum inspired Googling, that the pizza stone has become de rigueur for the true
pizza fashionista. As the local cooking store was soon closing, not to mention the $40 cost and the fact we were two cocktails deep, we
discovered some web postings where folks had used ceramic and stone tiles as an alternative to the fancy store bought pizza stones.

The idea behind the use of a stone is to ensure even heat distribution to the crust and also to extract any moisture from the pie, resulting
in a crispy crust. Many types of tile and stone can be used for this purpose including granite, slate and most ceramic tiles. Terra cotta
seems to be a favorite as well. We opted for a slate tile we had leftover from our bathroom tile.

We brought it inside and gave it a good scrub. Warm water only as the porous nature of the stone will allow it absorb soap or any other chemicals it comes in contact with. Always put the stone in the oven cold and allow it heat up with the oven. Set the temp around 400 degrees and a let the stone heat throughly before placing the pizza on it. We opted for using parchment paper under the pizza due in part to the somewhat dubious pedigree of
our stone. It worked like a champ!

The outcome was fantastic. I think the fig and brie on a wheat crust was my favorite, although the Hawaiian with fresh cored pineapple was a real contender.

Next time you are looking for a meal for family or friends to participate in, think homemade pizza with a “made” pizza stone!

Our Glidehouse resides on newly waterfront property. Check out the water in the marsh below our deck. Last week (and for the past 3 years) there has been NO water there. None. And now, thanks to a week of rain, it is a few feet deep in some places. While it doesn’t make for a fun air travel week (I am flying 4 of the 5 days this week in and out of our SF rainy airports), it is so wonderful to see the showers replenishing the landscape and farmlands. And perhaps makes for some good swimming for our dogs.

Now if we could just be storing more of this water into rainwater catchment systems and hold it until summer for irrigation….

The amount of devastation that is unfolding after yesterday’s quakes in Haiti is almost incomprehensible. And, sadly, as we know from other significant tragedies like Hurricane Katrina, we know difficult days, months and years are ahead.

Hopefully we can learn from mistakes made with the aftermath of other disasters, and make better decisions this time. Both short-term shelter and long-term rebuilding should not be toxic (like some of the FEMA trailers used for re-housing Katrina victims that made them sick). This is where prefabrication and good green design can rise to challenge and provide quick, smart, and healthy solutions. Buildings that can be built and deployed quickly, but built to LAST. Not built to fall apart and make people sick.

There are factories and companies that have the capability to make shippable, stackable 8′ wide modules that can unfold to create more space, have the capability to create their own energy (since much of the power in Haiti is now gone) and filter rainwater to drinkable water.  I have been talking to some of these companies today. This is where prefabrication can shine, when done well, and provide thoughtful and much-needed solutions. Unlike Katrina rebuilding, lets make buildings fast, but still with efficient and healthy systems and materials.

I hope many people out there utilize the technology that exists to fabricate green homes that can be quickly deployed for the Haiti victims.

If you are wanting to donate or get involved, Architecture for Humanity is a wonderful organization who are committed to the rebuilding.

What tops my “best of 2009″ list? That it is over.

And so far I am absolutely loving 2010. With many exciting projects and initiatives brewing, this is looking to be a fabulous year and decade.

I thought this New Years card from Lee Friedman sums it up nicely.

This past year has been a doozy. To say the least.

I would not have made it through this year without the support of others. Support from friends, colleagues, and family. By the end of the year, these three categories have merged into one for me. Friends have become like family, and in many cases, colleagues. Colleagues have become friends and in many cases, feel like family. I am amazed and astonished at what can be accomplished with this kind of foundation to be building and designing with.

Through all the challenging times, one thing has become crystal clear for me. One can accomplish so much more through collaboration. I know that sounds like a really simple realization, and it is quite likely that most you have known that for a long time.  It was great to celebrate the holidays and the passing of this year with friends/colleagues/family at the Collaboration | Archtiecture for Humanity party.

While I am looking forward to this year ending, I am grateful for the lessons learned, and mostly for the generous support and inspiring work of all of you in my life. Thank you. Thank you.

And I look forward to many wonderful collaborations in 2010.