It is called The Eco Home, it is 7000 square feet with a zero carbon footprint and almost zero operating costs. This beautiful work of art is designed by Diseño Earle will be built in Southern Spain by 2009. According to Diseño Earle the house/villa will be built with 75% less waste than a traditional design and operate 80% more efficiently than a similar sized home.
This is one amazing eco-house with the key environmental friendly aspect being the massive solar panels built into the wing like roof. But the Diseño Earle team didn’t stop there, the house also features a rainwater reclamation system, grey water recycling, radiant heating system powered by the solar panels, geothermal energy for back-up cooling and heating, low VOC paints, LED lights, environmentally-sensitive smart glass and abundant natural lighting, and energy and water efficient appliances.
Another interesting detail of the house is that the living room sits above 30cm deep canal of water which is part of the cooling system. It looks like the Spanish team has ironed out all the details in order to produce a zero carbon footprint house.
Here are some more pictures:
Original story via Jetson Green.
The GGG View
I would love to see more of this style house being built in the US. US home builders need to take some notes, this is a true environmentally friendly house. I am not sure about supposed “eco houses” in other parts of the US but here in northern California (one of the greenest states) home builders slap on a few solar panels on the roof, install a couple CFL lights inside and call it an Eco House.
That is bs in my mind, if you are going to call it an Eco House then at least set some standards and say it is at least 60 or 70% self sufficient. A row solar panels depending on the size combined with no other energy efficient aspects will produce maybe 15 to 25% of a house’s energy usage.
4 responses so far ↓
Amanda // July 18, 2008 at 2:37 am
This looks fabulous! It would be great to see more houses built like this. Here in Australia things seem to be going backwards with people building bigger houses with no eaves and no gardens. The houses need MORE cooling and warming not less!
There are still some shining stars – I like these green walls : http://www.elmich.com.au/VGM/about.php
They are good for soundproofing, reduce heating and cooling bills and look fab!
MZuvella // July 18, 2008 at 8:41 am
Hey Amanda,
I have never seen green walls before, the design is quite interesting. I like how you can get them pre-planted already and I agree with you I think they are a great idea. They look really good and could really help reduce costs and more than likely add value to your home as well.
Can you get them in the US?
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