400 SF HOUSE WITH LOFT
Nexus V-500
Jury Briefs
01. Sustainability & Resilience : Key Concepts - Summary
Key Strategies for Integration of Sustainable Design
- Healthy Home Principles serve as a primary design driver, essential to the success and comfort of a sustainable home.
- Built to last. Advanced waterproofing methods with Blueskin® adhesive rainscreen increase the structure's longevity while enhancing indoor air quality and air-tightness.
- Occupant experience of increased comfort, health, and safety:
- Increased mental and physical health.
- Health benefits of air filtration/air exchange.
- Noise reduction.
- Air quality - no VOC, mold-resistant, air quality control, etc.
- Passive resilience design elements:
- Designed for passive survivability to be used even when the electricity grid fails.
- Fire-resistant design (fire sprinklers, metal roofing, non-venting eaves and crawl space).
- Community-building through:
- Teaching construction skills and focusing on sustainable housing.
- Literally building a community.
- Looking to the future to expand access to sustainable, affordable, healthy homes.
- Water and energy conservation design:
- High-performance building envelope.
- An air-tight building envelope coupled with an energy recovery ventilation system (ERV) allows inhabitants to have continuous fresh filtered air throughout the home. The home's exhaust air is pulled through the ERV that heats, cools, and humidifies the incoming fresh filtered air silently distributed throughout the home.
- Architectural design - flexible open plan design layout.
- Using TJI and pre-cut lumber to minimize waste, lumber products optimize structure to reduce material needed. Due to the concern of shipping round-trip, we used more plywood than we would traditionally. As we develop this model, we will continue to refine the design to limit waste during construction.
- Off-grid optimized smart electrical system.
- We have worked to design and build well beyond code requirements because: "Quality is more than the absence of defects; it is the presence of value."
- Societal impact of increasing the quality of a community’s housing stock:
- Salinas housing stock is aging.
- Long-term rental housing is not generally well maintained.
- Help grow the economy - We have jobs but not housing.
- People are currently living in hotels to be close to job opportunities.
- Migrant labor.
- High cost of living - We can’t get/retain the community members we need.
- e.g., Rancho Cielo teachers, doctors, and staff for the nearby hospital.
- High-performance exterior envelope with Blueskin® rainscreen waterproofing with continuous application keeps moisture out while allowing household vapors to escape. This increases the structure's durability and longevity, preventing moisture, wood rot, and mold build-up in the roof, walls, and floors.
- ThermaCork siding and insulation in one: breathable, lightweight, reusable.
- The use of cork is also positive for the management of embodied carbon since the cork sequesters carbon. By applying it to housing, you lock in that sequestered carbon through the lifetime of the housing. Natural cork siding offers insulation and exterior siding in one. We display methods to paint the cork and apply it with traditional board and batten siding methods.
- Cork is a completely natural raw material with unique properties that give it an unrivaled character.
- It is lightweight, impermeable to liquids and gasses, elastic and compressible, provides thermal and acoustic insulation, is a fire retardant, and is highly abrasion-resistant.
- Cork is an entirely renewable resource and is recyclable.
- A high-performance exterior envelope dramatically reduces the energy required for heating and cooling:
- The airtightness gives you control over indoor air quality by reducing the intrusion of unplanned pollutants and allergens by around 90%. Continuous fresh and filtered air is provided by ERVs. Also, the airtightness increases resilience to extreme weather, fires, smoke, and power outages.
- Passive house protocols also enhance physical comfort in terms of constant temperatures and quiet and emotional comfort in knowing that you are providing a safer and healthier home for family members.
Reduction of Life Cycle Impacts
- The use of natural materials like wood, cork, homasote, and tile allow for reuse and are biodegradable with less embodied energy.
- Engineered lumber uses recycled wood particles compressed into forms optimized for desired structural qualities while reducing weight and dimensions.
- After its lifespan of use, engineered lumber and cork siding can be shredded and reconstituted into new building materials. Wood and cork are renewable resources, and when sustainably harvested, they sequester carbon and provide habitat, sustainable jobs, environmental stewardship, biofiltration, and oxygen.
- Continuous Blueskin® waterproofing with specific application methods is fully adhered to prevent lateral water movement. This ensures durable waterproofing, allowing vapor to escape rather than build up in the walls.
- A continuous exterior insulation, in addition to an insulated wall cavity, stops the heat/cool before it enters the wall. Thermal bridging in walls improves building durability, longevity, interior comfort, and livability (sustainability) and, at the same time, substantially decreases the carbon footprint of the home over what standard construction and insulation practices offer.
- Advanced energy efficiency insulation, air-tightness, and extra efficient appliances allow for less carbon and energy use over its lifespan and smaller heating/cooling loads requiring smaller, more affordable appliances.
- Pre-fabrication reduces travel time, building waste, and the overall carbon footprint of the construction process.
- Construction with the help of marginalized student teams allows a training opportunity while reducing poverty.
- Fabrication occurs in underserved regions with lower labor costs while being delivered to more affluent neighborhoods where labor costs are much higher. This reduces costs and increases wage equity and labor market mobility.
Modular Prefabrication Benefits
- Less vehicular traffic to a residential site - disturbance noise.
- Greatly reduced period of construction/disruption on residential sites.
- Health benefits of prefab building.
- Building materials are less exposed to mold ,pollutants, and other allergens.
Water Reduction, Reclamation, and Reuse
- All roof surfaces are used for rainwater catchment
- Greywater from the shower and clothes washer is used to irrigate drought-tolerant landscapes. Vegetation adapts and becomes responsive to user showering/clothes washing habits.
- Heat pump condensate water used to irrigate planters. Unlike municipal tap water, the condensate water contains no chlorine or other chemicals. It forms when the condenser heat pump unit cools warm air, which creates condensation. This condensation is directed safely into planters. We estimate harvesting 5 to 20 gallons (23-91 L.) of irrigation water per day.
- ¼ inch plumbing lines, when used with the right low-flow fixtures, have adequate water pressure and quicker response time while reducing water consumption and lowering heating loads. Increased flow decreases the potential build-up of biofilm in pipes that can contain more infectious severe viruses and bacteria.
- Surrounding landscape with drought-tolerant plants creates cooling and humidity for user comfort. It also allows users to harvest the benefits of biophilic design, such as recreation, reduced stress, food production, and fresh air.
- Extra efficient appliances - dishwasher, space-saving heat pump, clothes washer/dryer, induction stovetop.
Influence Consumer Behavior Towards Sustainable Design and Construction
- Design is clean, accessible, and familiar. We offer a series of roof pitches to choose from, and the design will integrate well into an existing neighborhood context.
- The loft module can be raised or slanted differently based on urban context and user preferences.
- Innovative cork siding made to look familiar with board and batten siding.
- A visible display of the custom solar thermal system raises awareness of renewable energy at work. Users will be reminded to take showers when the water heating is free.
- Healthy home methods aren’t a hard sell. After a survey of our students to ask who has encountered mold in their homes, most of our students said yes.
Key Resilience Strategies
Lifecycle impacts are primarily the embodied carbon associated with building materials and systems and the construction process.
Fire Alarms, Surveillance, and Monitoring
- Cork is a natural fire retardant; it burns without a flame and does not emit toxic gasses during combustion.
- No vents in the eaves and crawl space prevent fire from entering the building.
- Air-tight design prevents smoke from entering the home. Fresh air enters through the ERV systems and is filtered.
- Metal roofing is highly fire resistant, designated with a Class A fire rating, and one of the most non-combustible roofing materials with the greatest strength to stand up to fires. The Underwriters Laboratories Inc. Standard For Safety states, "1.3 Class A roof coverings are effective against severe fire test exposures."
- The Nexus 01 home is fitted with a code-compliant fire sprinkler system.
Survival at Power Outages, Passive Survivability
- Solar PV and a battery backup system (in this case, Enphase) are designed for off-grid applications to be free of grid-tied obligations and power outages. Moreover, by adding a SPAN Smart Electric Panel, this system is fully operational and can be managed from anywhere on your phone or tablet. In other words, goodbye utility!
- Solar thermal heats water with minimal energy use (only a small pump).
Innovation - Sustainability & Resilience
Education is the most sustainable design strategy there is. Sustainability needs to address not only the construction itself but also the students’ lives. Sustainability as it pertains to good paying long-term jobs and employment. Sustainability in pride and work ethic. Sustainability in quality of life and positive impact on society.
Training life skills through innovative construction practices, with a new approach for affordable, self-contained, sustainable, state-of-the-art healthy homes.
- Vocational training as a path to changing lives.
- Reference team profile and Rancho Cielo website.
- Building a skilled and trained workforce.
- Literally building a community - physical buildings and people, providing jobs and a more sophisticated knowledge base beyond standard building practices.
- Deployable - designed to be delivered and deployed on almost any site.
Unique Sustainable Design Elements
- Cork siding is an amazing material with many aesthetic, efficiency, and regenerative design benefits that is also a great way to sequester carbon.
- Unique building form is optimized for solar exposure and rain catchment while breaking the "cookie cutter" standard mold of prefab modular design.
- Healthy Home methods are often overlooked or undervalued in sustainable design. In our case they are primary design drivers that dictate specific design details, materials, and construction methods. This results in multiple compounding benefits: user comfort, health and well-being, durability, energy efficiency, increased desirability, added property value, and bragging rights.
- Education is the most sustainable, net-positive solution of all. Training our youth and giving them a chance, including on-the-job experience, diverts them from unemployment, homelessness, crime, and recidivism. We are building a better future and supporting future generations to create a sustainable community.
Innovative Strategies During Acquisition, Assembly, and Decommissioning
- The Hayward Fast Floor System delivered pre-cut engineered lumber (optimized composites made of OSB, parallams, and solid lumber) and solid lumber from Santa Maria to Salinas by train. The lumber was precut and labeled for easy assembly. This means additional layers of optimized prefabrication.
- As a prototype home, Nexus 01 will initially be installed and displayed at the Rancho Cielo Campus and fulfill its intended purpose as a live/work housing unit for Rancho Cielo students or staff. During office hours, it can serve as office space. Then, it can be transformed into residential housing in the evenings and weekends. It can also serve as a showcase and reference for reproductions. Nexus 02 is already being planned.
- Flexibility of the space increases the lifespan of the structure. The structure can transition from housing to office to workshop to storage facility over its lifespan.
- Portability of the structure allows for increased uses and a longer life span. Once its usefulness has diminished in one location, it can be disassembled and transported to another location where it will be more useful.