Element land planning . engineering . architecture . beyond

The How of the Where – The Siting of Your Home – “Green Building Standard” Series – Part 2.

Last week we discussed the “Where” as it pertains to selection of Home Sites.  This week in the second installments of a series of articles devoted to the national “green” building programs, we discuss the “How”.  The NAHB’s (National Association of Home Builders) program is broken down into several sections.  The first section(s) deal with selecting a site, orienting the house and developing that site for construction.  We commonly refer to this as horizontal construction.
Many people and builders – sometimes those are mutually exclusive (kidding, that was just a joke – if you are a builder) allow the horizontal part of the construction process to go by the wayside in terms of “green building.”  If one looks at this process from a truly environmentally friendly perspective, the where and how are, potentially, the most important factor.  For starters, this is where the home is located; second, this is the baseline of not using too many natural resources.  And third, yeah, your house touches the earth – that being the case – it’s, at least, something to look into.

Interestingly, this is where the NAHB’s program suggests “establishing a knowledgeable team.”   We would argue that should have happened before you select a site – but regardless, this step cannot happen early enough.  A knowledgeable team is necessary to achieve Sustainability, Efficiency, and Affordability.  Who should be on this team?  A designer (Architect, Designer, Person Who Can Put Your Thoughts on Paper), a Builder, and a person versed in Home Siting – which can be the designer, Landscape Architect or a Civil Engineer.  The purpose of this team along with the Homeowner is to make sure the home is sited properly.

What goes into Home Siting?  First is an inventory of what is on the building site.  This ranges from the easements and restrictions to views to natural resources to solar orientation.  Each of these factors has an impact and knowing them up front allows everything to flow more smoothly. 

Some neighborhoods and some lots have restrictions – be that a stormwater or sewer easement, definitive building restriction lines, or various setbacks – that effect buildable area and position.  It has been most recently described by one of our Builder Client’s as the rules of the game.  These are the hard and fast restrictions that are imposed upon the lot.

Once the rules have been established, we can get down to the next two issues.  The first is taking a look at the natural features of the lot.  The first thing that we look for is topography.  Topography, in Greek, means “place writing”.  This is a perfect definition.  The topography of the land is a description of the surface of the land and its features.  The questions we are trying to answer here are basic.  Where does the water flow now and how, and for the most part, can we keep that same flow happening? And, if the ground needs to be contoured, how can we do that in a way to keep the remaining natural features and not import or export the dirt?  In other words, this is the “how “of situating a home such that the ground and other naturally occurring benefits are minimally disturbed.

The second issue is looking into the naturally occurring features of the lot.  The ideal is to inventory them with an eye on the above (topographic placement) and capitalize on what makes that lot unique.  Unique features are views, trees, rock outcroppings, a neighbor’s yard with better landscaping (sorry about that last one).  This inventory is important for a number of reasons but the main one is solar orientation.

Solar orientation involves positioning the home such that rooms that need daylight get daylight – not too much and not too little.  Solar orientation is siting the home so that it uses the sun’s warmth in the winter and that same sun light is reduced in the summer.  These basic uses will impact your homes efficiency more than any mechanical system known can do – why?  Most importantly, it’s free and sitting right there.  Secondly, it’s free and sitting right there. 

The inside joke about siting that we feel brings home the point most is:  a couple has a kick-off meeting with a Green Builder and a Green Designer/Architect and says, we bought a fully wooded lot and clear cut the whole lot in order to put solar on the roof.  Now we want to start to design the home.  If you laugh, great, we have this idea down pat – if you didn’t get it or thought that was the right thing to do, email us, we can help.