Forms of Sustainable Housing
Sustainable housing, otherwise referred to as green architecture, generally refers to environmentally friendly building designs. Typical of these homes, full or partial use of renewable energy from water or sun is used to power the buildings.
Green roof homes
These are buildings whose roofs have different types of vegetation which has lots of advantages to the homes. For instance, the plants provide great insulation that blocks all kinds of noise coming from outside. The roofs equally help in temperature regulation in the homes wherein the building will be warmer during the winter and cooler in the summers. In addition to these, these gardens can be used to grow flowers, vegetables, or fruits, things that in addition to benefiting the people who will use them by providing fresh produces, they will improve the quality of air at the home and the environment at large.
Modern wooden homes
These are another great example of green home building. First off, these buildings are mostly designed to allow air and light get into the rooms of the buildings hence create an illusion of space. There are different variations of building modern wooden homes although most are shaped rectangular and will be largely covered in oak. A characteristic of these homes is that they are designed in such a way that they will blend perfectly with the surrounding trees hence may include special features such as sliding glass-door ceilings that will ensure the homes further blend perfectly with the outdoors.
Underground homes
While these houses are built more like the traditional homes, they tend to be erected fully or partially underground. For purposes of temperature regulation, majority of these homes will utilize heat stored in the earth i.e. geothermal energy. To blend in with the outdoors, some of the homes will be built with moss covering roofs. Despite the fact that these houses are underground, they will have strategically placed windows that will let natural light illuminate them.
Floating homes/houseboats
These is another unique form of green architecture that has homes floating on water hence are small in size and very light in weight. Even though floating homes are not very big in size, their design utilizes the space to create a spacious illusion inside. Many of these homes use hydro and solar power to make heat and electricity. Houseboats are mostly filled with argon gas that aids in keeping them afloat while at the same time helping in insulation.
Glass homes
Green home building even goes further to encompass glass houses which basically have walls made almost completely from glass and the structures themselves are supported by steel frames. Glass allows natural light to come in and warm the whole house during the day while their construction design includes photovoltaic panels that help convert sunlight into power that can be used at night. As a result, impact on the environment and electricity bills will substantially reduce. It is not uncommon to find these homes including nature in them for example allowing a tree to grow with its trunk inside the house and the branches coming out from the roof.
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