A house with green credentials

Paul Shahriari, an architect and keen advocate of bio-ecological architecture, has converted a lemon-coloured ranch built in 1968 in Cape Coral on the Florida coast for use as his family home. This greenovation project focused in particular on cutting energy and water consumption, reducing maintenance costs, and choosing materials that safeguard the health of the occupants. It involved converting a building with living area, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a 2-car garage into a home with four bedrooms and corresponding bathrooms, a terrace/porch and an area reserved for the architect’s home office. While the family refer to it affectionately as the Lemonade House due to its unusual colour, it is known amongst industry professionals as the Florida High Performance Green House for the low-tech solutions that have been chosen. These solutions include the use of cedar vinyl siding (which emphasises the Key West beach house look and avoids the need for regular repainting like the other houses in the area); thermal insulation provided by foam panels inserted inside the wall cavities and in the roof; a solar energy system; and a lighting design based on a combination of natural and LED light. The floor covering material chosen throughout the living area is the NU_Travertine In Falda porcelain tile series from Ceramica Fioranese in a warm sandy colour. This choice was dictated by the low environmental footprint of ceramic tiles (a material that architect Paul Shahriari has long been promoting) and the expertise acquired by the Italian company since 2002 in combining green criteria with aesthetic requirements. The Quartz porcelain tile series with characteristic stone veins from Ceramiche Coem was chosen for the exteriors. Even before its completion in December 2010, the Lemonade House had received at least 400 online visits thanks to Paul Shahriari’s idea of setting up a website and writing a blog to describe the project and monitor its progress (www.flgreenhouse.com). The initiative offers a unique learning opportunity and explains clearly how an existing building can be renovated in accordance with energy efficiency criteria without radically altering its structure. It also demonstrates how the spirit of the place can be preserved while maintaining an excellent overall quality-to-price ratio in keeping with the five underlying green principles of Energy, Water, Healthy Home, Green Materials/Products, and Smart Simple Sustainable Solutions. The website details all costs and explains how they are expected to be paid back within three years of completion of the project. The house features classic contemporary wood furniture and stands in the pleasant surroundings of a garden planted with tropical fruit and citrus trees, including Florida Orange, Persian Lime, Meyer Lemon, Key Lime, tangerines, grapefruit, mango, papaya and guava. A herb garden contributes to food requirements and a number of tanks have been installed to collect potable and non-potable water.