Johnston developed a plan for powering the house without any reliance on the local power grid. To help save energy, the builders oriented the house to make best use of heating, shading, and protection from winds and also to enjoy views in every direction—the four horizons.
In a 2003 interview with NineMSN in Australia, Johnston elaborated,
“The Four Horizons House and lodges are completely off the grid, so we make our own electricity from photovoltaic panels with a backup generator.
We also have solar power radio telephone. Also, we harvest our own rain-water and recycle gray rain-water from the laundry and showers to use for sub-ground irrigation for our vegetable garden. But the rest of the technology is very simple.” Four Horizons’s additional features consist of a solar-powered water heater, a propane-powered stove and refrigerator, a wood-burning fireplace, lowered walls for cross-ventilation, and a breezeway through the center of the house that helps ventilate and cool the house. The house also relies on a double-roof system for natural cooling in which breezes flow through a space between the lower roof and the larger upper roof.
The energy independence that Johnston built into Four Horizons House has been valuable: The house is in an area of eastern Australia where municipal services are very limited. But rather than equate off-the-grid living with isolation from the media, Johnston installed a solar-powered telecommunications system for phone and Internet connections.
Like most green buildings, Four Horizons is composed of materials that not only provide shelter but serve a purpose in heating, cooling, and lighting. Minimal walls allow light to reach every part of each room.
The house’s insulation consists of polyurethane and wool. Johnston also included thermal mass materials such as finished concrete floors, concrete block walls, and brick surfaces, which radiate stored heat in cool weather and provide cooling in hot weather.
Case Study: Four Horizons House, Australia
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Four Horizons House has features that many other green homes may not need. Because of the area’s high fire risk, the house has a steel roof and several steel structures. Wood collected for burning comes from the sur-rounding area to reduce the chances of fire spreading toward the house.
Some of these fire-prevention features would be valuable in other hot, dry climates such as southern California.
Four Horizons demonstrates how a green building integrates with the environment around it while causing minimal damage to that envi-ronment. As an added attribute, Four Horizons offers a comfortable and serene home where a traditional house might be inappropriate. Some of the components of a house like Four Horizons require more effort, plan-ning, and cost than conventionally built houses. Four Horizons has found a way to make up some of its building costs by expanding into individual units that now earn money as weekend eco-lodges for tourists.
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Lindsay Johnson’s Four Horizons House represented a new philosophy in building design: building in cooperation with nature rather than repressing nature. This concept laid the foundation for green building design. (Ozetechture)
Green Building Design
A typical U.S. family of four uses about 350 gallons (1,325 l) of water per day at home. This does not account for additional water use outside the home at work or in school. Easy changes in behavior can reduce water waste, such as the following:
showering instead of baths
collecting the water that runs while waiting for hot water;
use for watering plants, pet, etc.
shutting off water in between each item when washing dishes
saving laundry and dishes to make full wash loads planting drought-tolerant vegetation
watering gardens only in the early morning or evening
Plumbing suppliers also offer a variety of products that lower water usage and water waste. The following table provides information on the most effective and commonly used water-saving devices for green build-ings or conventional buildbuild-ings.
Water utility companies in every U.S. community offer tips on how to save water inside and outside the house. Green buildings differ from tra-ditional buildings because green builders pay extra attention to managing gray water and collecting rainwater. Gray water reuse has been gaining in popularity for several years, especially as a source of water for gardens.
Some features of green buildings can conserve additional water by col-lecting rainwater and storing it in an aboveground or underground tank.
Many green houses have cisterns, which are open tanks that simply col-lect any rain that falls into them. The water then runs to a storage tank.
Architects often add features such as directed gutters along the roof’s edge to carry rainwater to the cistern.
The practice of collecting rainwater for use is called rainwater har-vesting. Rainwater is usually soft (contains few metals or salts) and clean.
It requires minimal or no treatment before a household uses it for wash-ing, dishwashwash-ing, or laundry. Rainwater to be saved for drinking should receive treatment by passing it through a filter installed between the stor-age tank and the taps. Treatment filters contain the following two compo-nents: a carbon filter that removes organic matter and a membrane filter that removes particles.
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mAnAging WAsTe sTreAms
Water management within a green building means wastewater and other waste management. Waste management begins with the construction activities for a new green building and continues through to the daily routines of the inhabitants. Green builders have learned to use methods