Living Walls 101

Now, before we go any further, I’d just like to make one thing clear. This has nothing to do with the parlor walls from Fahrenheit 451, so you can take some deep breaths, and put your apocalypse pants back in the closet. So, what are living walls? Well, thank you for asking, dear readers. A living wall is a vertical garden that can be hung in or outside a building, in which the vegetation can grow, if given plenty of water, without soil. We can all concede that these would be a beautiful addition to a city scape, but you may be asking why these would be otherwise beneficial. Well, don't panic, because I'm here to tell you!

-Improved Air Quality: on both indoor and outdoor living walls, the plants will improve your air quality through biofiltration

-Space: in a packed urban environment, this is the perfect way to maximize space usage, and let all the apartment owners out there grow that garden they always wanted

-Insulation: outdoor living walls with both insulate and shade your house, and indoor living walls will provide insulation. This can dramatically cut your heating bill, and work to muffle the noise from the street

-Wildlife: the plants in your living wall may be visited by friendly woodland creatures, such as birds or butterflies

-Food! I know you all love food, and what better way to grow your own delicious fresh fruits and vegetables than this? well, this blogger doesn't know of one

-Beauty: Of course, these look amazing!

Well, now that you're convinced that these are the future of green architecture, there's only one thing you still need to know... How to make your own! 

And now, truly thou art the ecological architects of the 'morrow. Adieu lovely readers, faithful friends, and 'til next time... STAY GREEN!

River, away!

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Hey Guys --

International Listings created an article naming and describing 10 beautiful houses made out of what most would consider trash. If you're looking for a way to make your lifestyle more green check out these homes and see what some people came up with...

Earthships...

In Taos, New Mexico these earthships are very common. The house in the picture on the right was built using a tire frame filled with earth, and then plastered with adobe or cement to hide the tires. Earthships come in a variety of mediums such as empty aluminum cans instead of tires and it's not just what's on the 

outside that make these homes so eco-friendly. Earthships commonly use ecological concepts such as solar and wind power and grey-water systems to help the environment. The thing I find so intriguing about these Earthships is that they don't resemble a normal house at all. The Earthship in the picture looks like a castle. If I were to pass this house the first thing I would think of would be "Woah! That's an awesome looking house!" not "Woah! Look at that advancement in sustainable design." Usually when I think eco-friendly house I assume it to be very modern, solar panels everywhere, but they don't all have to be like that, especially not this one.

Plane House...

This house built out of a Boeing 747 plane, reinforces the idea that you can recycle almost anything. 

David Hertz, an architect in Santa Monica, California, is the mastermind behind this magnificent piece of work. Hertz found the plane at the Aviation Warehouse for $70,000 - $100,000 (which is relatively cheap), however the home owner Francie Rehwald, planed to spend at least 2 million dollars on the project.

If we can take an old plane and reuse it to make a beautiful house think of what else we could make homes out of!

Recycling Your Old House...

The Quimby family in Portland, Oregon had to demolish their old home, but instead of just tearing it up into useless pieces they strategically took it apart saving things like windows, doors, flooring and more to reconstruct their new home. If and when they need a part that couldn't be reused from their old house they made sure that that item was green. The Quimby's didn't give a specific price but Mrs.Quimby said that it saved them thousands of dollars, which makes sense. You're not building a house completely out of new products and your not buying a new home all together. If you're interested in doing something like this the Building Materials Reuse Association is a non-profit organization committed to educating people on avoiding landfill waste and pollution, reducing the amount of resources being used, creating markets and increasing cost-effectiveness and more.

I guess it's true what they say, one man's trash really is another man's treasure.

Stay eco-friendly guys,

-Romulus

*** I didn't include all of the houses listed in the article so to read about the ones that weren't mentioned here check out the 10 Amazing, Beautiful Houses Built from Trash article on International Listings ***

Cleaning Up Your Commute

Rapier at Twinbrook Red Line Platform

We are always trying to strike a balance, we have to commute and yet we would like to reduce our carbon foot print. Recently while in Washington DC my family took the metro every where, the red line was conveniently located right outside the hotel. We went down to the mall, to the national zoo, and even back to see the grandparents, all on the metro. A good public transportation is an excellent answer to the problem. You don’t have to sit still in traffic or have to find parking, and you reduce your carbon foot print. Some may feel that the subway is not as convenient, your schedule is some what dependent on the train and it can be crowded during rush hour. They have a point, but there is a train at most every 10 minutes, the highway is equally crowed during rush hour and the benefits definitely trump this.
When you take the metro or bus you lower the carbon out put by one car, that may not seem like much, but in a large city like Washington DC and NYC each of those individuals start to add up, and not in a bad way. Taking the metro could cut down on you travel time, clears the street and of course the best part is it reduces emissions helping our environment through a greener life style. 


Stay eco-friendly guys
-Rapier

Green Living Fun Fact Of The Day

hey friends,


Did you know...more than 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil?
 All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it. Just blows your mind doesn't it?! Think about this the next time you enjoy a Hershey's Kiss.


Catch you kool kats later!
~ Romulus

Green Living Fun Fact of the Day:

pistachiYO! Did you know....
The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
So, remember to recycle, kids! 


Stay awesome, 
   River

Deep in Thought...

We found this interesting quote the other day and thought it might provoke some deep thoughts,

"Indeed, the chief plunderers of energy and materials are buildings. To build them and use them consumes roughly half of the world’s energy resources." -Randy Gragg

Stay eco-friendly guys

-Rapier

Bodacious, Classic and Eco-friendly? That's a Killer Combo!

Boom it to the MAX guys!
I have recently come across an architect by the name of Nick Mehl. His Austin-based studio specializes in green architecture, which we here at terra just can’t get enough of. These houses that Nick has designed are so beautiful and unique we want to share them with you. Here is a link to his website...http://www.nickmehl.com/index.php (check it out!)

One of my favorites, the Clarkesville Cottage, combines the look of a normal everyday house with the benefits of an eco-friendly house. Normally, when you see a sustainably designed house they are super modern, this isn’t the case with this house. If you passed this house you would think of it as a classic beauty that blends in nicely with the neighborhood it is in. The price of this bodacious dwelling won’t break the bank whatsoever. This house costs about the same as a non-sustainable house with the same square footage. Taking all of this into account, it’s only a matter of time until you want one of your own (it took me 2 minutes, ‘nuff said).

Stay eco-friendly guys
- Romulus

Clip, Clop, Clip, Clop, Here Comes the Recycling Carriage!

Un-bye, terra followers!  This is River, signing in to give you, yes YOU the latest and greatest in eco-friendly advances!

 Many towns in France and other parts of Europe are replacing their waste disposal trucks with the more environmentally friendly horse or donkey drawn carriages.  To read more, click here. Now, is this idea slightly silly? Maybe.  But it also has many merits, such as:

- cost: horses and donkeys are much cheaper to obtain than trucks are, and when was the last time your truck reproduced? That’s what I thought.
- fuel: horses don’t use energy that pollutes the environment
- traffic: for some small towns, garbage trucks can be a hassle in traffic, especially considering the narrow french roads.  Jean Baptiste of Peyrestortes said that they had to close of sections of the road in order to allow for their garbage and recycling trucks to turn, a problem that is completely avoided with carriages
- novelty: this is a great way to get people recycling! I mean, you would want to recycle more too if it meant you got to watch a horse come and pick it up, right? If you are shaking your head, you are officially uninvited to my flag day party. And it’s gonna be a blast.

My problems with this article:
-Mayor Cicero claims that these carriages are much cheaper, saying:
“Compared with €5,000–7,000 annual running costs for a diesel truck, an ass costs €1,000–1,500 and can live 25-30 years. A truck costs around €25,000, [and] lasts around five years”
However, this does not take into account all the extra maintenance these animals require.  They would need food, water, shelter, people who would train them and take care of them, special equipment and procedures that would allow them to work on the road, surgeries, retirement plans.... on the surface, having a donkey seems cheaper than having a truck, but is it really?
- Animal abuse.  This article said nothing about the treatment of these animals, and I think this is something we have to take into consideration if we are going to rely on horse drawn carriages again.  Working conditions for horses were very bad, training methods were harsh, and when they were deemed to old for the work, they were abandoned.  This is why animal shelters originally opened.  We just need to be careful not to repeat our mistakes, and to be aware of the extra costs that will come with these horses once they are too old to pick up our trash.

And now for the two questions we’re all asking:
1) What about the poo?

Do people mind the extra waste on their streets?  Are additional waste disposal vehicles needed for the waste disposal vehicles?

2) If this trend comes to the United States, will Texans be getting rid of their trash using elephant drawn carriages? Is everything really bigger in Texas?

We can only hope .

This is River, signing out.

Keeping It Cool

About a year ago my family decided to redo the outside of our house, in the process we discovered our window screens were badly in need of repair. While looking into repairing the screens, we considered not just replacing the old ones, but installing solar screens. Solar screens help reduce the amount of energy a house uses by lessening the amount of heat that enters a house through the window. Everything we read about the solar screens said they were well worth it, so we decide to go ahead and install them. On the upper story of our house we have windows facing east and west, on these windows we installed a heavy grade of the screen, while on the lower story we installed a lesser grade, since these windows receive less sunlight. We could still view our back patio and flower bed out front, but the house was considerably cooler.


We found this installment to be very beneficial, the City of Austin gives rebates for home improvements that improve energy efficiency, solar screens included. We also saw about a 15% decrease in our energy bill. The upstairs office which could be sweltering on a summer afternoon, was no longer unbearable to walk into if we left the off air conditioning while we were downstairs and the front room facing the east was now pleasant in the mornings. Not only were we able to cut our coast with the solar screens and keep the house cooler, but we also reduced the amount of energy we consume, in turn lessening our impact on the environment.


Stay eco-friendly guys
-Rapier