Productive House does most of the work for me!
Being LEED certified and following the principles of Zero Emissions Design (ZED), the Maison Productive House greatly reduces its environmental impact by maximizing energy efficiency, enabling local food production and facilitating alternative means of transport.
“LEED” STANDARD:
Maison Productive House is aiming for the highest possible rating from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), North America’s foremost green building standard.
* Geo-thermal radiant floor heating
* Solar panels (Convection-tube solar collectors, etc)
* Passive solar design through the overall orientation of building mass
* High R-value materials, and low U-value fenestration
* Energy-efficient lighting and appliances (Energy Star appliances, LED-lighting, etc.)
“ZED” STANDARD:
Maison Productive House respects the Zero Emissions Design (ZED) standard, an even more rigorous and holistic green building standard developed in the UK.
According to the ZED standard, human domestic energy consumption (individual ecological footprint and greenhouse gas emissions), are contributed through the following activities in roughly equal parts:
1. housing construction and operations
2. (industrial) agriculture and transport of foods over long distances, and
3. individual automobiles
In conceiving of and designing Maison productive House, the three aspects of ZED are addressed by empowering each household to make drastic reductions in each area, without severely constraining the household's quality of life. In fact, we believe this reduction is possible while improving overall leisure and enjoyment of the Maison productive House living spaces.
The Maison productive House also brings special attention to organizing design around food production and introducing spaces dedicated to social and economical activities related to food: top-of-the line private kitchens, an artisan bakery and year-round growing spaces.
PIONEERING GREEN DESIGN INNOVATIONS:
- Grey water filtration and recycling. The Maison productive House collects and filters domestic greywaters from showers and basins and reuses them for toilet flushing. This initiative, combined with the use of water-efficient appliances and fixtures aims to reduce water consumption by 50%. This eases the strain on already overburdened municipal infrastructure as well as minimizes our waste of potable water.
- Year-round food production. In nature there is no waste and likewise, the Maison productive House does not waste heat but channels heat from the apartment units and bakery to a rooftop greenhouse. Through innovative use of temporary and seasonal covers as well as age-old technologies such as cold-frames, the Maison productive House introduces multiple solutions to extend growing seasons with both summer and winter harvests. This innovation takes advantage of the relatively southern latitude of Montreal and the generous number of sun-days in this location, while taking measures to trap heat and protect growing areas against extreme temperature drops.
- Clean burning of biomass fuels. As a back up for hot-water and space heating, the Maison productive House uses wood as a carbon-neutral and renewable resource. Carbon neutral simply means that we enter the carbon-cycle of biomass that has trapped CO2 from the atmosphere during our lifetime and allow it to be released through burning. This carbon would otherwise be released to the atmosphere through natural decomposition. Pellet ovens and modern wood bakery ovens assure clean emissions from these wood-burning furnaces.
