The BC Workshop, Alan Hoffman Co and more fish

Alan Hoffman Company www.concretehomestore.com
Alan Hoffman's company specializes in "Innovative Designing and Building Practices of LEED homes".  He stresses the economics of green home building.  Simplicity is key because good ideas can go awry. Updating some old ideas can prove to be sustainable.  Alan suggests considering the following when building a home:

• location
• are the materials sustainable for the long haul? - decades rather than a few years
• focus on regional solutions - for example native stone
• where will you spend your money first? 

As  a builder, Alan is concerned that we aren't changing behavior.  He's interested in reducing consumption.  This goes back to the idea of updating old ideas and using known methods in a new way.  Using thermal mass walls - an adobe wall.  This is a technique that has been around for hundreds of years. New day insulated concrete forms are an update.  A kiva fireplace used within an adobe wall radiates heat through out the walls.  The ground is also used as a heat source.  It costs about 5-6% more for him to build a house, but the long term savings are substantial.  He can easily make the business case.  


Alan built the first LEED platinum home near White Rock Lake.  He is currently working on a 22 lot sustainable community in Lakewood.  LEED is used because it's a third party rating which makes it easier to acquire outside funding.  


In addition to home building, water is a key concern for Alan.  Storm water needs to be captured and managed to curtail flooding and soil erosion.  He community plan calls for water capture through cisterns in multiple locations.  The water will then be used for irrigation.  He suggests checking out Brad Lancaster, a landscape architect from Tuscon with very innovative ideas.


The BC Workshop www.bcworkshop.org
"The building community workshop is a Dallas based nonprofit community design center seeking to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design.  We enrich the lives of citizens by bringing design thinking to areas of our city where resources are most scarce.  To do so, we recognize that it must first understand the social, economic, and environmental issues facing a community before beginning work. "


I love this concept!  The Building Community Workshop is a group of young, thoughtful, community minded architects. It started in 2005 and became a 501c3 in 2008.  Their community design has many self -descriptive names - human caring, do-gooder, and public interest to name a few.  SEED or social economic environmental design in the backbone of their work.  They work for other non-profits.  Brent Brown, CEO and Benji Feehan, architect ,use design as a tool to thread and weave how a community should look and feel.  


Ethics is at the core of their sustainability model.  People are a part of nature and stakeholders must be engaged to encourage the best design.  Everyone should be respected for their expertise and contributions. It's also key in their business to make sure the people who make the decisions are sitting at the table with them.  If not, nothing gets accomplished.  Matrix is important to show actual feelings rather than anecdotal.  They are held accountable through empirical data. 


The BCWorkshop has a great website with video and descriptions of some of their projects.  Check out the Congo Street project in Fair Park.   Anyone can participate in the every other Friday lunch and learns they host at their office.  2814 Main Street, Dallas, Texas.  I think I'll check it out!


.....more fish.........SynergyFish
Aquaponic systems design consultant, Dave Pennington had a little different spin than our earlier aquaponics speaker.  His sustainability motivation is from a global perspective and the overfishing of our oceans.  Education and sharing his perspective with the community is important.  He is currently developing an aquaponic system for the Parkland Hospital community garden sponsored by the Urban League in south Dallas.  Dave presented a great history of this technology showing how the Aztecs used aquaponics.  He contends that it allows efficient local production of food.  Interesting fact - it takes about 4 pounds of ocean fish to feed 1 pound of fish we eat. (i.e. salmon) www.synergyfish.com