The first project to use the modular wall system is getting to break ground in June. The Balance Project is located in City of Santa Fe’s Baca Rail Yard District and will contain a residence and offices. We have had a tremendously difficult time financing the project due to the fact that it is the first of its kind in this area. Which we take as a badge of honor but Fanny Mae seems to think differently. The PH+ Wall System as we are currently calling it uses a material called THG manufactured by Agepan of Germany, THG is basically a wooden fiber board that has structural capacities, great thermal characteristics, and is vapor open. All materials used in the wall system contain no formaldehyde and are FSC certified. We will keep posting as construction begins. THe construction is expected to be complete in January of 2011.
Monthly Archive for June, 2010
Concept renderings that we produced for the Oshara Village Project
Santa Fe County had completed three generations of a RFP process directed at area organizations. The applicants were requested to submit projects that unitized the county’s money that they had set aside for affordable house production. There were four projects that were asked to provide final proposals. The two that stood out the most were from the Santa Fe Green Builders Guild who proposed development of a subdivision in Tierra Contenta, and from Danny Buck for development of town houses in Oshara Village. As a disclaimer I must say that we assisted in both of these projects and did what we could to have them move forward. However, in the final hours of decision the County decided to not move forward on any of them and instead to focus on the Galisteo Street Property that they already owned. I must say that i agree with that, though they might have saved quite a bit of resources by making that decision 12 months ago. Their Galisteo Street Property is the old Santa Fe County Public Works site, located inside of the Santa Fe City Limits and right next to one of our new rail-runner stops. It has every possible thing going for it in regards to sustainable locations, and potential except for a clear path of excavation. We hope that they do move forward.
This is an example of one of the products that we found during our research in Germany in February. It is a bracket made by Simpson Tie, that allows beams to be structurally bearing without penetrating the interior airtight barrier or interrupting the thermal envelope. We are currently talking to Simpson Tie to try and bring the brackets in to the US market.
Click on this link to see the video: Thermal-bridge free beam hanger
We attended the 14th Annual Passive House Conference in Dresden Germany last week. The Passive House Institute launched the International Passive House Association which promises to be a wonderful to for many of the Passive House organizations working outside of western Europe. The web site in now live, www.passivehouse-international.org
The conference was well attended by over 1,000 people representing over 52 countries. Much socializing and a general air of collaboration. The photo attached is of Katrin Klingenberg and Mike Kernagis of the Passive House institute US, Stephan Tanner of Peak Building products, and Klaus Muller with Optiwin Windows.
PHI conference
Social Follow