Business Publications

Discreetly green

Residential Architect, July, 2003 by Shelley D. Hutchins

You can't tell by looking, but the newly constructed Utah House in Kaysville, Utah, demonstrates a variety of sustainable building techniques, including the use of straw-bale walls, insulating concrete forms (ICFs), and 2x6 framing. Conceived by Utah State University and integrated into its Botanical Center, the 2,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, fully furnished home--and its 700-square-foot garage-cum-training center--is used to instruct architects, builders, consumers, and students about the benefits of smart sustainable design.

Project architect Larry Hepworth of Design West Architects in Logan, Utah, employed an energy analysis to determine such details as how the ratio of glazing to solid wall would affect insulation ratings, and which angles and depths of eaves would best control sunlight. Other clandestine elements include gutters as a rainwater collection system, peel-and-stick solar panels, geothermal heat, a water-evaporation cooling system, and water-wise landscaping known as xeriscaping.

The house opened in June; Hepworth is already impressed by responses to the project. "I've had seven or eight people call and ask how to incorporate these ideas into their homes," he says. For more information, visit www.extension.usu.edu/utahhouse.>