Tons and tons of useful ‘green’ information and a wide variety of sustainable building materials and resources were on display.
I was particularly excited by a prefabricated house and surrounding garden that was set up outside the Bill Graham auditorium on the city hall concourse.
The energy efficient modular house was designed by Michelle Kaufmann and the gardens were designed by Nicholas Thayer of Late Afternoon Garden Design .
Below are some photographs taken of the “Lotus” house and gardens.
A recycled boardwalk zigzags through a sunken California native sedge mini meadow.
This bio swale acts a sponge to absorb rain ( when it does rain ) and recharges the native aquifer.
This photo shows the front door and an ingenious light fixture that shines both upward and downward when turned on. -- I must get one for my own house !
I did take a few photos of the interior of the house , but for sake of this “garden” blog, I am going to restrain myself from posting them and keep to the subject of the garden and garden architecture.
But ......
There was one element within the house that captivated my interest, and that was the Electronic House Controller.
I punched in a couple of easy commands and found that the automatic watering system was connected to this controller . .. pretty cool, though I don’t know how this might work if you have a maintenance gardener who visits your yard monthly and needs to fiddle with your irrigation controller and you are not home to let him/ her inside the house.
As a landscape designer I like to install all our irrigation controller outside for ease of maintenance ( and sense of personal privacy)
At the front of the garden was a rain water pond catchment system. It stores water later for use on the ‘green roof’, which was planted with a wild grass and meadow mix.
A detail shot of the glass hockey pucks - a ‘aesthetic design augment’.
As you left the master bedroom ( the only bedroom ) one came upon a secluded deck with two stylized Andirondack chairs from the retail shop of Room and Board.
They are made from recycled plastic and were surrounded by an edible bamboo hedge.
I was EXTREMELY happy to see an outdoor tub by Concreteworks included in the Eco House design.
I am planning to do the 2008 Garden Show in San Francisco and also have an outdoor tub by Concreteworks set into my garden vignette.
There were also several containers set into the landscape by Concreteworks.
I too will be using these and other containers of theirs in my upcoming display garden.
It was nice to see the scale of the tub and the containers in an outdoor setting.
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2 comments:
Glad I came here to look cause the address you left me No Work. Was that to more of the interior detail?
Is the outdoor tub meant for bathing? I know in Hawaii an outdoor shower was standard, but you did not see tubs other than the Hot Tub variety.
What is up with Equisetum these days? They seem to be the designer trendy choice du jour. I have seem them look wonderful in many applications, but they can spread like crazy if not contained and actually need trimming to stay neat and tidy. I think they are best in large pots.
Yes irrigation clocks belong outside or in a utility room seperate from the main house. These days I bet they could have two control panels to run a irrigation system.
I wish I'd known about this. Looks great, and I vote for more pictures inside the house.
"Design augment"--love it.
I'm excited you're doing the flower and garden show next year! Can I help you set up? I'm a hard worker and I work cheap! Like, real cheap. lcbii@yahoo.com
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