Orchid House Near Buenos Aires Is Eco-Concious, But Is It Green?
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 12.31.08
Photos: AndresRemy.com.
The Orchid House is one of the first to be built under environmental concerns in Buenos Aires. Designed by architect Andres Remy, it is certainly beautiful and loaded with neat energy saving features, but, Can a house in the middle of a private neighborhood about one hour from the city be green?
Click through for more details and great pics in the extended.
The house was requested by a couple interested in eco architecture to live with their two children. Architect Andrés Remy researched eco friendly design in New York for four years along with architect Rafael Viñoly (author of the LEED certified Brooklyn Museum) and came up with the plan.
Inspired by the shape of orchids (not in an obvious way), the house incorporates energy efficient and saving features, natural lightening and ventilation and low impact materials.
The shape of the orchid can (somehow) be seen in the plan.
The rooms of the house were assigned according to the moments of the day in which they'll be used and the sun's position. The windows are all double glazed, and walls and ceilings were built with air chambers. The painting used was water based.
Strategic location of the windows allows natural cross ventilation and the circulation of air on a people's level and not in the ceilings.
A scheme showing the natural temperature control.
All of these features are great, except maybe for the huge size of the house. And the fact that it is located at the Haras del Sol private neighborhood, in a suburb of Buenos Aires called Pilar about one hour from the city. Needless to say car-dependent.
The neighborhood is the first to be called 'Slow', as it says to promote better life quality and preservation of the natural flora and fauna.
So on one hand, great looking house with green features and clever energy saving. On the other, outside the city and car dependent. Green or not?
Another view of the house.
From the back.
The sleek looking interior.
Via Clarin
Andres Remy Architects
Haras del Sol Neighborhood
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This house is absolutely not green. Sure the house has good features, but is completely contradictory. Going green in a suburb does not make up for the fact that you live in a suburb. This goes along with my problems with conventional new-urbanist communities.
Seriously? preservation of the natural flora and flauna?? Must not have been much there to begin with since there certainly isn't much present on the site plan. Not to mention what looks like a gigantic driveway extending from the garage.
I think we need to make a distinction between a green living situation and a green home. This is clearly a green home -- its deigned to have low environmental impact and conserve energy. Whether or not it is a green living situation depends in part on what kinds of cars they drive, and how many miles a year they drive. If they work from home 5 days a week then they are likely living a lot greener than most people.
Personally, I think that with telecommuting possible, there is no reason why, as Mitch points out, this cannot be a green home in a green lving situation. I live on the Chicago suburbs and my wife and I stopped working in the downtown Chicago area about two years ago. We save hundreds of dollars in fuel not to mention two hours of time one way to work and back five days a week. No, we don;t own a home anywhere near as huge as this one and are perfectly happy in a little two room condo, but the obviously wealthy owner of this home might have bought a penthouse or a co-op apartment downtown and used a lot of energy every day as well. Surely that would not be more desirable?
To some homes have aspirational value and the more money they have, the bigger the home they would like to live in. As such, it is a good thing that this person had a home designed to be as efficient as possible instead of moving into a polluting Mc Mansion modeled on some Hollywood monstrosity somewhere. I think a cautious note of congratulations is due here.