The house-designers of the future

You might recall a previous item in which Santiago told us about West Linn fifth graders that visited Pringle Creek. They were working on a project to design "the house of the future." The kids' efforts have gotten some coverage in the Wilsonville Spokesman. The article, "Building spaces," talks about advantages of the project-based learning method--and the visit to Pringle Creek:

. . . Over 100 students in all are currently engaged in the research, mathematics and problem-solving skills required to design and construct a house with a footprint no bigger than 2,000 square feet.

The students are not designing and building just any homes, either. Instead, the project is inspired by the Pringle Creek Community, a sustainable planned development currently being undertaken in Salem by a team of designers and architects from Salem, Portland and even Vancouver, B.C.

The project integrates the latest green building technologies, with at least some of the homes being so-called net-zero dwellings because of their capacity to produce more electricity through solar panels than they consume.

Students visited Pringle Creek to examine what a green community actually looks like. Afterward, they began viewing their own homes and communities with the same issues in mind.

“The kids really got into the research as they’ve seen these issues in a personal way,” Locke said.

Even more recent photos

First strawberry of the season! Local and organic, fresh picked…
Strawberries and mint growing together in the community garden.
Lupine & iris in the gardens, with the greenhouses in the background.
Elephant garlic planted last fall popping up.
Potatoes for Marion Polk Foodshare are coming out.
Native landscaping alongside the LEED-H Platinum Cottage – less weeding and watering and no chemicals.
Local Father-Son duo Larry and Blake Bilyeu of Bilyeu Homes are building this cottage in the background.
Blake up on the roof during the roof installation.
Roofing supplied by Taylor Metal, a local metal roofing company.
The most recent photo of the Tall House, which is about 2 weeks from move-in.
The second floor kitchen and dining room of the Tall House, almost done! Floors are getting finished.
The leaves on all the Oregon White Oak trees have come out, making a nice canopy in the rain.
A close-up of the red-tail hawk.
Regular shot of the red-tail hawk, up in the same tree. Lots of birds this time of year.

More recent photos

All the camas planted in the rain gardens are in full bloom, deep purple.

A view of the new custom cottage showing the front porch. They are putting on the rigid insulation, a component of the rain screen system that is one of our green building standards for all homes.

The injection well is being drilled this week for the ground-source geothermal system. After the water is used in the ground-source geo district heating/cooling system, it irrigates the orchards, community gardens and parks. All the excess is re-injected back into the aquifer.

A close-up of sedums we have growing in xeriscape areas. We will be using sedums for greenroofs on multiple community-use buildings and for residents.

Flowers in the rain gardens--everything is in bloom.

A close-up of the fruit trees in bloom. So far we have put in over 300 fruit trees of all types, and over 150 blueberry bushes.

Clumps of wild camas growing alongside Pringle Creek, near the orchards. Camas is a native, edible bulb.

Santiago

Recent photos

We’re keeping the trunks for benches--local company Nexterra is grinding branches and stumps into chips for use for soil improvement and walking paths.

Front stairs and sidewalk being poured at the Wilsons' tallhouse, which is almost ready for move-in.

New custom cottage getting framed up--cathedral ceiling upstairs, all FSC wood.

The view out the upstairs window of the creek and wetland areas--the residents will see a lot of the Great Blue Heron that fishes on this stretch of the creek.

Santiago

Earth Day '08 at Pringle Creek

Earth Day was a great event! Local school groups displayed their environmental study and service projects--we were really impressed. We had a singing performance by the HOPE Team Choir. The workshops on Bamboo, Worm Bin Composting, and Urban Chicken Keeping were all great – thanks to Dain, Sally and Jim for presenting. Thanks also to Larry, Blake and Phil for being on hand to answer all questions on green building. And a big thanks to everyone that made the event a success: Deborah, Becky, Jackie, Tony, Elizabeth, Don, Joe, Luca, Dan, Robbie, Marie, Sally and Bill, and especially all the teachers that took time out of their Sunday to support kids helping the environment.

Santiago

Below is a 25 second video from the festivities

Pringle Creek hosts 5th graders designing house of the future

Below are some photos from yesterday’s visitors--125 fifth graders from West Linn working on a long-term project to “design the house of the future.”

We divided into five stations: Rainwater, Food & Agriculture, Forestry, Fish & Wildlife, and Energy. The questions we asked were, “How will the design of your house impact the world around us? Can your house be restorative, can it actually improve all the other systems we rely on? How?”

Partners that helped with the stations were Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, Marion Soil & Water Conservation District, Marion-Polk Food Share, and OSU Extension Service Sustainable Living Project. Evann Remington from Organic Fresh Fingers arrived at noon to provide organic snacks for the kids.

A special thanks to the volunteers from these organizations for taking the time to help, and to Organic Fresh Fingers for the healthy snacks.

We asked if we could display the concept designs and scale models that the kids create as soon as they are done – probably this summer. The level of sophistication of the curriculum and the kids’ understanding of sustainability was very impressive!

Santiago

Earth Day '08 at Pringle Creek

Presentation on Green Building

Pringle Creek Community is pleased to host a special evening slide show presentation by international green building expert Joe Karten, LEED-AP, on Wednesday, April 16th at 6 p.m.

Joe will present on a number of sustainable buildings in Europe, such as the Agustenborg project in Malmö, Sweden, the Vauban District Community Development and the Solar Fabrik PV factory in Frieburg, Germany, and the EcoBox in Madrid, Spain. He will also present on some of Australia’s most advanced green building projects, such as Melbourne’s CH2 building and Sydney’s “30 The Bond” (see photos below).

Joe received the Regnier Fellowship Award in 2006 to conduct a nine-month study of international sustainable buildings, which took him throughout Mexico and Europe. Joe is a LEED Accredited Professional and currently resides in Sydney, where he works for the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), and manages a portfolio of over 100 projects working towards green building certification.

Please join us for this rare and engaging glimpse into modern green building practices outside the U.S. There will be a reception following Joe’s presentation with light hors d’oeuvres.

Please RSVP to sarah@pringlecreek.com or 503.763.1770

DATE: Wednesday April 16th at 6 p.m.
LOCATION:
Painter’s Hall
Pringle Creek Community
2110 Strong Road SE
Salem, OR 97302

CH2 Building

30 The Bond

Oregon cities are among the “Best Green Places” (Salem is #16)

Country Home magazine has put out their second annual Best Green Places list. They “analyzed hundreds of cities on key points, such as official energy policies, green power, green buildings, and the availability of fresh, locally grown food.”

Very interesting: Out of 379 cities, Corvallis is #1, Portland-Vanco-Beaverton is #2, Eugene Springfield is #6, Bend is #9 and Salem is #16. Many other “Cascadia” cities are also high up. That should make us appreciate all the more our little corner of the continent.

A comparison of last year's list has me wondering if "locally grown food" is a new consideration. How else explain that Salem jumped from #54 in 2007, and that Burlington VT dropped from #1 to #36 and Ithaca NY dropped from #2 to #68?

There are a number of things going on in and around Salem that should be considered substantial efforts toward sustainability. For instance:

• There is the work to protect the watershed that provides our excellent quality water.
• We have Marion County ranking highest in Oregon recycling efforts.
• I think making the downtown area vibrant, especially the new downtown housing, will help to keep the city compact, although, let’s face it, even with the urban growth boundary it’s a sprawling city. It seems like the City and business leaders and citizens work together to make this happen.
• Buying the train bridge to turn it into a pedestrian bridge, the other planned footbridge, expansion of Minto-Brown Park—this will create a fantastic network of bike and pedestrian trails.

There's a lot more that can be done and hopefully Pringle Creek Community will serve as a model and an inspiration.

Salmon found at Pringle Creek Community

Karen Hans, a biologist from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, came out to Pringle Creek Community last week. She brought a group of 8th graders from the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School. They came out to do a fish count in Pringle Creek.

They found a 5-inch Coho salmon; a 10-inch Cutthroat trout; and a 1-inch trout fry (which was probably also a Cutthroat). The significance of finding the Coho is that it shows there is a certain degree of fish passage between Pringle Creek Community and the Willamette River. The significance of the 1-incher is that it shows that fish are spawning here.

This is very exciting news because it demonstrates how collaborative creek restoration in an urban setting can have a measurable positive impact on fish and wildlife. If we protect the riparian zone and make it more habitable, the fish will return.

-- santiago