Landscape Architecture For The Prefab Modern House Kit: The Root Cellar, and More. Guest Blog Post!

We will begin to have guest bloggers (weren't you tired of listening to me anyhow?), people who know a heck of a lot more than I on the next steps of the prefab SIPs house kit as it goes from a modern house kit shell to a sustainable modern homestead in the years to come.

Please welcome Heather Barber, founder of Topos, LLC, a landscape design studio dedicated to purposeful design through creating unique natural environments in Richmond, Virginia. The sustainable landscape plan by Topos was earlier mentioned here; today, she talks about visiting the off grid prefab modern house for the first time, and how sustainability is connected in the kitchen.

The rest of the post is her own.

turning the page on sustainability and the sufficient garden...

Sustainability and landscape go hand in hand, but to really understand sustainability from a livable principal you must put form in the background and set the focus on function. The two do not have to live entirely separately, but the thing that has driven landscape design for centuries must become secondary to to the primary purpose of function. A sustainable landscape does not have to leave beauty out of the picture, but it is there for many more reasons than just aesthetics.

Let’s take green modern kits casa ti as a prototype for understanding the adaptation of the built object to the site rather than the normal process of site adaptation to accommodate the built object. casa ti is a melding of modern living principles with a centuries old notion of living with the land, off the land, and of the land. casa ti is sited in the middle of rural farmland in Virginia.

At first sight, it seems as though there is a modern box sitting in the middle of this soft, rolling earth...still viable earth that is now a repository for a very static looking building. Understanding modern sustainability will turn this perception on it’s ear. casa ti, a prefabricated green modern kit home is actually a very dynamic part of the earth and a living, breathing entity that sustains the land it inhabits. The landscape that surrounds casa ti becomes a fulcrum that allows the exchange between the site, the building and the family that lives on the land.


So many of the sustainable landscape principals are the functional values that have been used in farming and land use for thousands of years. Many have been abandoned to the contemporary notions of density, aesthetics and convenience. Having the opportunity to attend the first casa ti open house I found it absolutely astounding that many of the local farmers grasp the notion of the sustainable system (being the building, the land, and the functions of the land, the landscape) and yet many of us ‘designers’ don’t really fully understand. I learned a tremendous amount about the importance of function from the resident farmers who came to support casa ti.

It also sparked a conversation with my father, a celebrated Landscape Architect whose heyday of design was in the 60’s and 70’s, pre autocad and plotters and computerized land forming programs. Now in his 70’s, Dad still uses a sepia printer (a ‘brown’ print machine) and a typewriter and still understands working within the natural systems of the earth rather than contriving them to fit the design. All of this being said, I have really re-approached my ideals of sustainable design and casa ti this week.

We are working on many planes with the prefab house nestled in the rural landscape. Foremost, casa ti is a structure drawn from modern design tenets. It is constructed in a way that would blow the doors off of most LEED and Earthcraft rated buildings. The siting (the location of casa ti) in a rural, traditional farming community is a great opportunity and hindrance equally. It allows casa ti to function as intended, as a fully self supporting, energy producing entity that forms a relationship with the land, the profile, the context, the climate, the macro and micro environments. The challenge is finding the craftsmen, the materials and the technology to make it all happen in a natural and budgetary way. It is all a learning process and I am honored to be a part of it.


So, how do we meld the aesthetics and function of the modern style prefabricated green modern kit home with a traditional rural site?

Again, we look at many of the sustainable attributes that already lie within the site. The immediate area around casa ti will become an extension of the living space and reflect the modern form / aesthetic. The people who live here want to live in a healthy way without sacrificing comfort and enjoyment and that is an absolute. Clipped hedges, exterior fireplaces, large planes for dining, and family entertainment areas will all be designed to express the modern style. The choices of plant material and hardscape materials will lend to the functionary aspect. The true beauty lies in how these areas are also those which sustain the mechanical, solar, and water treatment for casa ti.

The secondary environs become the threshold that allows the aesthetic transition between modern style and traditional farm style. Open space, groves, and more naturalized land forms set up view shed and flow into the actual working land and forested areas of the site. Again using native plant material and land forms from recycled earth becomes the functional aspect. They lend to the shade value and thermal support of casa ti, and provide sustenance.
Water harvesting and recharging will reduce the necessity for potable water waste on gardens and cyclical necessities within the residence. Vegetable gardens and fruit trees will be planted down hill and irrigated with the traditional agricultural flooding methods. Green walls add to the thermal value of the home and earthen berms protect the home from energy stripping climatic effects. A small pool will be used to house and recharge the water supply. UV filtering and a baffled rill will do the actual recharging. Seasonal crops will be used in the larger fields, always cycled one season with a green crop for essential nitrogen restoration. Seasonal fruit trees, berry shrubs, vegetables will be planted for 3 1/2 seasons of additional food stores.

A root cellar (which has been the most logical, yet baffling part of the design) will serve many functions. It will house the minimal mechanical equipment needed for casa ti, as well as add natural storage for vegetables and fruits, thus minimizing loss and the need for refrigeration.

This lends to another necessary discussion...the contemporary kitchen in a sustainable setting. The things that are of the utmost importance are storage, accessibility to the edible landscape and waste. Composting areas need to be close in order to minimize unnecessary waste in the kitchen, yet need the space and the ‘privacy’ to be their ugly smelly selves. The kitchen is also a great area for the collection of gray water for non potable use, and relatively economical to make happen. The kitchen garden must fulfill a certain portion of the food supply for at least 3 1/2 seasons. Sorry, you’re not going to get much out of this garden when the surprise March blanketing of snow occurs. Enter root cellar...again, the proximity to the house is important, but equally the type is too. Banked into grade change allows light and airflow and doesn’t turn it into the dungeon (horrors), but equally allows the proper amount of moisture to circulate so your carrots and potatoes don’t turn to chalk or worse. Of course, dependent on the size and location, additional venting and drainage is necessary. I’ve found several articles helpful, posted below for your reading pleasure. It truly is fun stuff.

As the casa ti plans evolve, the next chat will be about addressing other aspects of the sustainable site, such as parking courts, natives vs. invasives, and positive drainage for maximum water efficiency.

Relevant links:

• www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-173,00.html
• http://oldfashionedliving.com/rootcellar.html
• www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-Homesteading/1980-07-01/How-To-Build-Root-Cellar.aspx

-- Heather Barber, Topos LLC
    GLA, ASLA
    Richmond, Virginia
     http://www.ToposLLC.net

 

Sustainable Landscape Architecture For The Land Surrounding The Prefab House

Ohhhhhhhh this off grid zero energy prefab house is never going to be done.
Ohhhhhhhh I'm exhausted (but excited).

Ohhhhhhhh. Wait a second: Once the prefab house kit is done, there's more to do:
The Land.

Ohhhhhhhh.

Well, thanks to the sustainable landscape architect Heather Barber of Topos LLC, our sustainable land management plan has been expanded beyond crop tree release and bush hogging.

And if you thought it took long to build the prefab house, wait until we journey years to gently shape the land to function more sustainably.

Great. I just set myself up with decades of more work. ; ) And we have no money.
But the landscape architecture plan by Topos is delicious.

And I mean that literally: There's blueberries and a root cellar in them thar plans!

So, c'mon, what are you waiting for? Let's check it out!

From Heather, the landscape architect of Topos LLC:

"casa-ti is a remarkable example of how far prefab residential architecture has come. this greenmodernkits kit home is located on 55 acres in a heritage area in the western portion of virginia. the most exciting yet challenging thing about the casa ti project is that it contradicts any idea that the landscape is a stayed design, or an anchor for the architecture. we are taking a very historical site contextually speaking and turning it on its ear...creating a post modern design that connects the home with it’s expansive environs. i think the opportunity to design a functionally sustainable, yet whimsical site plan for casa ti is a true honor and an evolutionary process. we are talking about the first kit / prefab modern home that is completely ‘off-grid’ / fully sustainable in the state of virginia.* this shows that the greenmodernkit home can translate anywhere, in any capacity. it is my job and again, opportunity, to create that threshold between the prefab sustainable home and the environs in which the owners choose to site it. this is a luxury for me. i can take a very simple form of architecture, which has it’s own inherent beauty in that it’s simple, and connect it to it’s site through the landscape architecture. whether it is urban, sub-urban, or farmland, the modern pre-fabricated homes that are greenmodernkit homes do, in fact speak the language of their location. and it’s a language that is very sensitive to the people living in it as well as the environment."

[ *Heather said we're the first off grid prefab in Virginia, I haven't heard of any others, but I don't know for sure if that's true... will research, but no, I haven't heard of any other modern prefabs that are off grid here... ]

Wow, Heather, I'm honored by your words! When Topos originally inquired into what our landscape architecture would be, I laughed and replied, "Um... a bush hogg, Handsome Husband and a shovel?"

I thank Topos immeasurably for giving OUR FAMILY the opportunity, through their experience, to turn an abandoned, briar-filled plot into, one day, a sustainable farm.

So... let's go through it:

• Starting with field #1, Topos created a figure 8 access road which allows us to easily navigate the drive, house, and shed while maintaining the field. This eight acre field was previously farmed. By bush hogging it regularly we have been reducing the briars which had cropped up before we bought it, and will start planting cover crops to enrich the soil this fall. Wildlife such as quail will be encouraged through allowing patches to not be mowed but to create the habitat quail, turkey, and rabbits enjoy.
• I also envision field #1 being used to grow potatoes and garlic...
  
• Field #2 is downhill from the house kit. Rainwater will easily help irrigate it.

The area around the prefab house is geared for high traffic and fun...
more on that in a minute!

• Back to Field #2: Being downhill, rainwater will naturally run towards this plot, and if you can look closely Topos has created furrows and a collection area for water- which is the way they used to irrigate fields in times past.
• Not only will we be using that existing field for crops but it will also harbor fruit and nut trees, and a berry hedge.
  
• This area is surrounded by woods that had been cut-over twenty-ish years ago. Lots of pine, cedar, but a surprising amount of diversity in the trees- poplar, birch, hickory, walnut...
  

Ok, let's get to the prefab house kit area:

• Pavers made with recycled fly ash for high-traffic areas in poor soil areas
  
• Cisterns for rainwater collection
  
• Baffle (you always wanted to know what a baffle was, didn't you?)
  
• Root Cellar
• Terrace for High Traffic Areas
  
• Retention Pool (more on what this does later...)
  
• Blueberry Hedge
• Berm to lounge against while watching Casa Blanca projected onto the side of the prefab house like David Day always wanted to do with a bunch o' friends
  
• ...and more...

I will go into this, and more, later, but in the meantime need to pack up for another camping weekend in the prefab house kit! In the meantime, check out Topos, a modern landscape architecture firm!

 

Zero Energy Prefab House Kit Update: We Look To The Land.

The zero energy prefab house kit exterior is complete.

In about 2 weeks we move on to the next steps: interior walls of the modern house, off grid systems (solar energy, solar heat, and rainwater collection and filtration), and with it all, stepping back for a larger view: the land, and how we will encourage its health while bearing sustenance for our family.

Heather Barber, ASLA, of Topos met with us last week to discuss the land, and landscape architecture.

From the beginning, here are my thoughts about the land:

• I love the fact we did not have to cut down ONE TREE for the home site.
• However, we are big believers in crop tree release to help the woods become healthy. What that means, in short, is removing weed/competing trees to let the native, desirable trees grow strong and healthy. Along the field we have a mixture of poplar, hickory, oaks, walnut... mixed in with cedar, red bud, pine, a few dogwoods and... non-native evil ghetto palms! Ghetto palms, I'm out to get you!
  
• The 8 acre field can be rotated with
  
• cover crops of warm season grasses that encourage the quail habitat (as well as leaving strips here & there in the fields, and other quail / wildlife management practices)
• potatoes, garlic, onions: With friends we can plant the field, then harvest it together, keeping enough for our families and donating the rest to the Society of St. Andrews. I mean, why glean (although I do look forward to doing that with my friend Peggy, what fun combined with hard work on a gorgeous weekend!) when you could actually plant a field for hunger? (Also note: store bought potatoes have one of the biggest carbon footprints as they often travel quite far to reach the consumer. They're so easy to grow, try growing your own in your back yard!)
  
• eventually move to the Rodale Institute's cover crop roller. Currently we have a tractor with a bush hog and blade.
  
• There is a smaller field downhill from the home site we could irrigate with rainwater... we've tossed around ideas of growing some kind of crop there, like asparagus... but the reality is that as it is much deeper in the woods it will be much more accessible to wildlife... but it's something to think about...
  
• I would love a root cellar in which to store food.
• ...and, I admit, we have a hankering for mid-century coolio functional cooking grills- purposeful practicality with kickin' design. YES I realize this is a murky area, in which I struggle. Half o' me is survivalist (heck my family has survived here for hundreds of years), half of me is forward thinkin' design, and half (fine I never said I was good at math!) o' me wants a third option from the solar cooker and propane marine stove. I mean, if the weed tree is felled, why not use it? (Or not? Considering.)
  
• Handsome Husband and the casa ti green building architect, David Day thought it would be plenty fun to have our friends hang on the slope next to the east side of the house in the evening and project old movies onto that north-east side of the house. They were even tossing around words like, "amphitheater." We'll see.
  They're such romantics. Which is why I love 'em. Which is why they're both more talented than I. : )
• We've already planted apple trees around the shed, and I was pleased to see they are all in bloom and healthy! In a few years we can invite friends over to pick apples!

Now I also must remind myself that we are on a STRICT BUDGET. So maybe most of these ideas will not happen for years. But in the meantime, here are a BUNCH of land pictures, so that the Virginia landscape architect Heather Barber can get a better feel of the entry, field, and area surrounding the modern house kit. I commented on many of the photos, so if there is something that interests you, click on it to see it larger, and with commentary.



We also met with Ron Bernaldo, also known as The Most Fabulous Contractor In The History of the World about our next steps. I can not re-iterate enough how critical having a knowledgeable, experienced contractor has been to the success of our house kit completion. The house kit itself erected easily; but the decisions we had to make as consumers, making the modern off grid house kit "our own"- could not have been affordably or successfully achieved without a contractor like Ron.

Regarding our green building progress, as I mentioned we start again framing the interior, then move on to solar and rainwater collection integration. And THEN we move to interior design of the house kit. Married to a fellow design enthusiast, living our role as house building consumers, I suspect there *might* be design fights ahead.

The first hint came when Handsome Husband nailed up some old sconces. Yes, they do help light the interior of the unfinished SIPs - exposed house kit, but... um...
Fortunately they dribbled wax onto his pristine-just-polished concrete floor so I suspect that will be that. But we shall see... never underestimate Handsome Husband.

So maybe I should start a new blog category, called, "design fight" just in case...

In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of the zero energy modern house, it was a *lovely* weekend on the land!

 

Land Sharing Is The New Trend: Thoughts on TreeHugger's Article

TreeHugger's Land Sharing Is The New Trend, though focusing on the UK, interests me because there are so many ways it could be applied to our own towns...

This is certainly not a new trend- people have been working collectively for local agricultural benefit for eons. My family farm had such a relationship - when we no longer had horses, we allowed a neighbor farmer to regularly cut the hay in the fields and roads. The hay was then his, and used to feed his livestock, and we didn't have to spend the hours bush hogging the trails or mowing the fields. It was a great relationship that worked for us all!

Where we live in the city is in an old urban neighborhood that has nicely sized back yards. We have always had a productive garden, but there are many here who are in their eighties and nineties who can't garden any more... And this is really where the TreeHugger article hits home to me.

How wonderful for an older person, often alone, no longer out and about, to have enthusiastic younger people working their back yard plot? Think about all the great things that could come from this, taking the community garden a step further from the median strips and publicly owned city land, into the private realm... mutually beneficial.

Wonderful! Just some... food for thought. : ) And smart growth!

 

Crafty Growing Power

Erika and her dad win the crafty award of the day. Guess that's why THEY get the MacArthur award and I don't. ; )

Here I've been sitting smug with my high-wheel cultivator and all along Erika and her dad frickin' got out a bicycle wheel and some old parts years ago and...
(Clap clap clap clap clap... ovation, everyone! Cheers!)
Beautiful. Next generation crafty-ness.
Flinging late season rose petals from my garden wildly towards Chicago.
www.growingpower.org

 

Just sharin': A beautiful article in Virginia Living on my beloved cousin, Nancy Ross Hugo and her wildlife farm, Flower Camp!

Thought we all needed some happy fun news after this week:

Virginia Living's Paula Steers Brown covered my beloved cousin, Nancy Ross Hugo, and her wildlife farm, Flower Camp!

I *so* can not wait to tease her about that Jerry Garcia reference in the first sentence:

"In Virginia, in the world of gardening enthusiasts, Nancy Ross Hugo is the equivalent of Jerry Garcia- she makes us all want to leave our day jobs to follow her."

Hahahahaha!

Congratulations, Nancy Preston!!!! : )
(What her family calls her)

As someone who is enmeshed in the web and has loved all the wonderful people and information I have encountered thanks to the internet, I thought this great quote from the article could also apply to our wonderful lil' green online community:

"The group discussion around the campfire, when everyone pulls up an Adirondack chair, turns individual thoughts into collaborative experience."

Beautiful.

 

Breathtakingly beautiful yard... 0% Grass.

A dear childhood friend is visiting Richmond from New York City and we hurried over to visit. Turns out her father's urban Museum District home has the most beautiful yard... and zero grass.

A rain barrel could easily irrigate this simple, luscious yard, especially if gray water were redistributed from the shower as well. For those that scoff at lawns without grass, here is a great example at how attractive, and amendable to entertaining and enjoyment, a zero grass yard can be.

Here, multiple herbs, perennials, and accents of splashy annuals gave their house more outdoor "rooms" in which to while away the day, perfect in its mix of sun and shade, a lovely accent to a beautiful, restored home.

We toured inside and saw beautiful examples of Barbara's stained glass work- and in their upstairs stairway they had installed a SolaTube! They said adding the SolaTube was the most dramatic impact of their dark Tudor home renovation, brightening up the house with natural light and showcasing Barbara's beautiful artisan windows.

(P.s. If you look to the right in this photo you can see Barbara's stained glass studio, where she does all of her work.)

 

Mandatory Water Restrictions

As of today, we are under mandatory water restrictions.

Neighbors, when you see me hopping around the yard watering daily, please know it is grey water, water that is being reused for another purpose. And that's what we've been doing all along.

It's actually quite easy: Put a large pail in the shower. As the water goes from cold to hot, it collects. Take a smaller pail and transfer water into watering can. When you bathe the children at night, leave the tub full at the end, and use it to water your yard the next morning.

Your plants will thank you! : ) And you will be not only conserving but re-using a precious resource!

(Of course noting restrictions on gray water use on edible plants...)

P.s. Pictures taken by 5 year old. Thank goodness for digital cameras, otherwise it would have been 293 pictures worth of film that day.

 

Urban Gardening: An Oasis In The Middle Of D.C.

As we journeyed to D.C., I tried to prepare our children for their first Big City Adventure.

I had spent a lot of time in D.C. when I worked in New York, and, with fun memories of Adams Morgan in mind, described the HUGE buildings, the PEOPLE, the bustle, the restaurants, the museums, the zoo!

We crossed the Memorial Bridge, and the "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" began. We slid down Rock Creek Parkway, past the Kennedy Center, and onto Connecticut. They took it all in: the joggers, cafes full of brunch crowds reading their newspapers or laughing, groups in the park practicing karate, playing volleyball! Look at those city children- for them, their "every day" is this!

At this point a chorus of "Momma, I want to live HERE!" erupted from the back seat, and honestly... I agreed!

Wow, what would we do with our friends first?!? Walk a few blocks amidst the crowds? Head over to a favorite restaurant where I would happily surprise them by picking up the check? (My friend D. always sneaks the check & pays- it's an ongoing battle.) Visit a museum? The Mall? The Lincoln Memorial where Marian Anderson proudly sang?

Little did I know we would be spending the day in a quiet, lush secret garden in the middle of the city.
Here, the audobon society comes to count songbirds, foxes visit, and wayward tomato-eating squirrels are chased off by a mad woman with long curly hair and a snow shovel. ; )
Sometimes, pictures say more than words. Enjoy.

Ok here's some tour items of interest (by now, you know I never stop talking, don't you?): Note the hammock in the shady corner behind the bench, the great use of deep shade but then full sun. Charles Gillette could not have done a nicer job of taking a shared space and creating many pockets and "rooms" out of greenery.

 

Garden Revenge.

Garden Revenge.
The endless battle of the weeds.

So this year, I decided to eat them.

For three years I have been pulling daylilies and planting them in the alley, the ditch, the land, giving them to friends... But it's never enough. And I hate to just throw out anything, much less a living plant.

Then last year I planted a bunch o' medicinal plants, just to see what they looked like, and discovered several of them were invasive.

So this morning I harvested the burdock, the daylilies.
And ate 'em.

And I feel smug.

I got the recipe for the burdock here:
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Web%20Recipes/Recipes%20Page.html#Anchor-Burdock-23240

Now there are several tips: After scrubbing, boil the burdock a good long time. Then you can peel back by hand the outer layer of the root, revealing the inner root. For the daylilies: wash thoroughly outside, then keep rinsing in a pot inside, even more than leeks. Cut both in 1/2 inch pieces after cooking, as they are fibrous. Seriously, eat like this often and there's no need for store-bought fiber!

**Note: It has been said that daylilies cause upsets in 1 of 50 people, just to warn you.**