The area of understanding has made great leaps and bounds in recent years. More and more people are becoming aware of how their actions and lives in the area are affected. This green trend has penetrated construction and home design. Eco friendly home design shows several different characteristics, ranging from building materials to interior design.
If you want to design and build an environmentally friendly home, start with the materials you use. This long-lasting building material continues to be popular in both commercial and residential construction. This gives your home a great foundation that won’t overturn any welcoming space designs you decide to use in your home.
Wall Materials
Every house needs to have normal rooms that are resistant to different weather conditions. While you want a home that is environmentally friendly, you also want one that will stand the test of time and provide long-term protection from the outdoor elements. The material of your room means that it has many benefits in a green house. They not only create structures, but also have isolation and sustainability considerations in mind.
Cob
Cob houses are a universal tiny house choice because of their independence. Cob is a natural material made from a combination of clay, sand and straw. This combination of materials gives you a construction material that identifies all loose debris and freezes to form a durable structure. While you might expect this mixture of ingredients to break down at the same time, there are cob structures that have been standing for over 500 years.
It has the aesthetic of an old fairy tale cottage complete with overhanging thatched roofs. This roof design is the key to a durable cob structure. This protects the room from excess moisture that can compromise the structural integrity of your home. Raised stone foundations away pools of water from beneath your cob chambers. This environmentally friendly housing material is non-flammable and insect resistant.
Straw Bales
This is yet another eco friendly home design material that sounds like it’s been pulled straight out of a fairy tale. Bales of mostly straw can be found locally, reducing costs and construction time. Don’t be afraid, your room is not just a pile of hay that can explode at any time. The foundation of a straw bale house is usually made of stone for the same reason as the cob construction method. You want to remove as much excess moisture from the hay bales as possible so as to preserve their stability.
Once you have laid the foundation, there are 2 types of straw bale construction. The first is a weight-bearing method. This is what you usually think of when you hear straw bale construction. The straw bales themselves are the actual structure and are then plastered for stability. The second type of straw bale construction is the no-load method.
Ground Base House
A land-based house can be a very area-friendly home design outside. Also called a shelter from the earth, these structures are built entirely on the ground floor apart from your door and a few windows. Often homes are mostly made of concrete, protecting you from all weather conditions that could present a hazard, such as a tornado. There are 3 basic types of soil construction.
The first and most universal are the hill construction houses. This is a house built on a slope or hillside. There is one open booth that blocks the front door and some windows. The second land based house design is made from a method called earth berming. It consists of making artificial mud near your house and piling soil near the sides of your house to create a slope.
The buildings are completely above ground and because the hill is man-made, you have the ability to leave slits open for windows to allow more natural light to enter the house. The final earthen house design and the most intensive construction is a completely hidden house.
Rammed Earth Construction
Bumped earth construction has been used as an innovative and environmentally friendly method of building structures since ancient times. The technique consists of fixing the damp soil and compacting each layer to create a dense, solid framework for your home. Crashed earth structures can be found on every continent except Antarctica. They are resistant to a variety of weather, both dry and wet.
Builders usually use a mixture of sand, gravel, and clay to create a durable freeze-dried material to build the structure of the house. Rammed earth structures have low building costs when machinery is used to compact the soil. If no machinery is available, the process can be very labor intensive and therefore, more expensive.
Roof Material
Once you have decided on the room that will form the frame, you will want a roof that can withstand rain and other unfavorable weather conditions that may confront you. It can be a permanent source of energy or it can be multifunctional in terms of housing and energy generation. This space-friendly roofing material comes in a variety of styles that can adapt to any aesthetic you want for your green home design.
Bamboo floor
Bamboo flooring is a popular option for budget renovations and new green home designs. This particular wood flooring option has many benefits that make it the perfect flooring option for an eco friendly home design. Bamboo flooring is a maintenance-resistant, water-resistant material that comes in a variety of colors, caramel, and sandy blonde.
Caramel is a richer tone of wood and gives you that classic look that you usually find with hardwood floors. Sandy blonde tones are lighter woods that brighten up your space and give the room a more modern look. This durable material is perfect for areas with high traffic, such as kitchens and living rooms. However, it is susceptible to warping depending on humidity conditions.
