A Million Times - The Yannell House

photo courtesy of greenhomechicago.us

I mean, talk about a building I pass by a million times, this house is on my dog walking rounds, so I really do walk by it all the time. It’s a fascinating house and each time I walk by I try to figure it out and each time, I can’t quite;  which confounds and attracts me.

Today’s building is the Green Home Chicago house. (You might want to turn your volume down before you go to the website, there’s some pretty rockin’ music on there.)

The house is located at the corner of Ravenswood and Ainslie. It’s a “zero net energy” home which means that it will produce at least as much energy as it uses. It’s also going for a platinum LEED certification. LEED certification on a basic level measures how well your building is doing in the green movement. There are different levels of certification including silver, gold and platinum. Actually, the house is part of a new pilot LEED for Homes certification. It really is pretty much one of a kind. There is one other potential zero net energy home in Wheat Ridge, CO.  They have to wait and see if it did what it said.

There was  a home previously on the site that had to be demolished for a bunch of reasons, but they recycled every thing they could from the old house, donating lumber and metals and all that kind of stuff.

The house really looks like two houses, it’s split in half with a foyer in between. This split allows more light to go into the huge windows in both halves. The heat will also sink into the masonry part of the building where it will be stored and released into the house throughout the day. Whoa.  The overhang on the roof is at the exact right angle to shade the house in the summer (thank you FLW for that idea).

Kay. Then there are these crazy solar electric panels that produce energy. When they produce more than they need they will go back to the city grid, when they need more, they’ll take what they need.

The landscaping, which I notice a lot, is all prairie grasses and that sort of thing. It also has a lot of plants that don’t need as much water, “drought tolerant” plants.

And yay! There are tours of the house, led by the owner I assume. They don’t start until spring but I’m definitely going to go on one of those. I’m dying to see what the house looks like from the inside. Because, even though the house feels very open and transparent, it’s actually really hard to see in! Oh those smartypants architects, stopping me from peering inside other people’s houses. Hurumph.

I highly recommend poking around on their website, there are some great pictures and a host of cool green information on there.

And one other thing, they also take a little long to shovel in that house…just saying.