These houses are landscaped with plants native to Texas, which in and of itself contributes to the overall goal of helping the environment. These plants require no more water or sunlight than what they already receive from this climate, reducing the amount of water normally used to water plants.
Agave homes also include a variety of green architectural techniques, such as spray foam installation and green appliances such as on demand water heaters and low flow toilets. The more green you put into the house the more "green" you're spending, right? WRONG!!! Designing smaller houses and not using extra material inside the home helps to keep the price of these houses from going out of control.
You may be asking yourself why do I need to buy a new house to be green? The answer is that you don't. You can swap out some of you appliances for energy star appliances and replace your old installation material with a more environmentally friendly kind and a number of other things. You could in theory give your home a green makeover, but in some cases it would be easier to build a completely new house from the ground up and make it green.
The next time you're in the area, drive through the neighborhood. It might not be your style in particular, but it may inspire you to consider sustainable architecture. Plus the houses are really cool, but that's just icing on top of the cake.
Stay Eco-Friendly Guys,
~Romulus
I didn't know that Austin had any eco-friendly neighborhoods (I mean ones designed to be eco-friendly). This is interesting, but something that you didn't consider here is water usage.
ReplyDeleteOften, houses like these need less water, which you mentioned. However, I have heard that often, where eco-friendly neighborhoods are made, they say that they use 50% less water. This allows the city to say, oh look, now, instead of needing this extra water, we can use it for whatever we need. Then, another neighborhood might be put in, and the water consumption is the same as before, with no protections for droughts and so on. It can be used as an excuse by developers to put in more neighborhoods.
Just something to consider.
--Sydney