The Green Builder® VISION House Series is a sequence of showcase home projects produced by Green Builder® Media to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable design, construction, and product selection. These houses are being built across the country to coincide with industry events such as the International Builders’ Show, the National Green Building Conference, and local/state Home Builder Association forays into the green building space, as well as other opportunities for educational outreach.
There is no one solution to building green. Designs and systems that are appropriate in one climate may be inappropriate for another locale. The driving purpose behind the VISION House Series is to showcase a range of styles, technologies, and products as they pertain to a particular place. Through the VISION House Series, Green Builder Media and their sponsors will demonstrate a variety of sustainable solutions for the building industry. VISION Houses will be located throughout the United States and will display a wide range of sizes, styles, and price levels.
The VISION House Series began with the VISION House ´06 Albuquerque. This inaugural demonstration project, which debuted at the National Green Building Conference in March 2006, is an elegant, high-end custom home illustrating that green can be beautiful. The house utilizes a unique southwestern design and exquisite finishes to demonstrate appropriate green choices for that particular region.
The Series continues with the VISION House ´07 St. Louis compound, consisting of a small suburban community of five homes on an infill site near a formerly traditional downtown area. These homes will demonstrate that green is affordable and within reach for the mainstream American family. Of average size and price, these homes show that sustainable designs and green products are easily integrated into all levels of housing construction.
The third house in the Series, VISION House ´08 Orlando, will be a high-end architect-designed custom home, demonstrating that green can be not only glamorous, but also sustainable by considering durability and life safety in an active hurricane zone.
Future projects planned for 2007, 2008, 2009, and beyond will continue to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable development. The VISION House Series projects are constructed in compliance with the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines. These voluntary compliance guidelines, provided free to NAHB members, are readily accessible to the vast majority of home builders in the United States. The fundamental components of the Model Green Home Building Guidelines include the following:
Lot Design, Preparation, and Development
Resource Efficiency
Energy Efficiency
Water Efficiency
Indoor Environmental Quality
Operation, Maintenance, and Homeowner Education
Green Builder Media and leading building-science organizations will monitor all of the VISION Houses to collect highly valuable information about the performance of green homes. This much needed data will be shared through the pages of Green Builder® Magazine as well as a variety of national publications and newsletters in both building-industry and consumer arenas.
For more information: Green Builder VISION Series
