A new green idea house illustrates Asheville, N.C.'s already-green inclinations and shows that tradition and sustainability combine beautifully.
By Stephani L. Miller
The mountains of western North Carolina are getting greener, and it's not just because of the approaching spring. The Southern Living Homes Group has announced that it is building its first green Idea House in Whisper Mountain, a new conservation-oriented, master-planned mountain community in Madison County near the booming and progressive city of Asheville.
Designed by Bill Allison of Allison Ramsey Architects and under construction by Rob Moody's green building firm The EcoBuilders, both of Asheville, the 2008 Southern Living Idea House harkens back to the farmhouses indigenous to rural Madison County. It incorporates many of the traits typical of Madison County farmhouses, many of which evolved to address the local climate. Low-pitched front porch roofs, high-pitched gable roofs, front and back porches, lots of clapboard, and metal roof claddings all find a place in the idea house.
"It's definitely a house that could have been there for years—or it could be brand new," Allison says. "And that's what we try to do: timeless houses. It's not an architecture that ages and loses value over time." The traditional exterior architecture is combined with a more contemporary open floorplan, and most rooms are oriented toward natural light and long mountain views.
Along with partially panelized construction, the house uses many energy-efficient, healthy, and sustainable features, including rainwater catchment and graywater systems, reflective roofing, spray-foam insulation, a high-efficiency HVAC system, energy recovery ventilator, mold- and termite-resistant borate-treated lumber, low-VOC materials and finishes, recycled-content materials, and wood milled from trees on the site. It will be rated as an Energy Star house, certified under the NC HealthyBuilt Homes program (the state green home building program), and certified as a U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold house.
Though it is a prominent project, the 2008 Southern Living Idea House will not be the first green-built residence in the area. One of the primary reasons the company chose the area for its first green Idea House is the local interest in green living and in preserving the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Much as Austin is a hub of green building activity in the Southwest, Asheville is the green building hub in North Carolina, according to Allison, and the city appears to be emerging as a hub for the green building movement in the rest of the Southeast, Moody adds.
In December 2006, the City of Asheville resolved that all new city buildings will be built to meet LEED certification, and several green-built communities, including condominiums, have been developed in the past few years. There are 110 homes in the Western North Carolina region actually certified under the NC HealthyBuilt Homes Program, and currently there are nearly 700 more in progress throughout the region, according to the NC HealthyBuilt Homes Program of Greater Asheville.
"It seems like over the past year or year-and-a-half, we've crossed the tipping point. We have more and more people asking about green building, not just clients, but builders and developers," Allison says. "In fact, if you're developing in this area and you're not thinking about green, you're going to get a lot of opposition."
Allison Ramsey is using its participation in the idea house project as incentive to add to the standard specifications of its own house plans. The firm has developed a set of green specs for the idea house that also will be incorporated into the standard spec throughout its complete library of house plans. "So a builder who buys our plans can do it the old-fashioned way, but can also see the green alternatives for every category, and also see how to get certifications," says Allison.
Completion of the green Idea House is slated for June 2008, and it will be open for public tours from June through August.
