I am not sure if I understand your question, Abacus. We are planning to build and live in Taiwan, so we are looking at options available to us here. Ideas from outside of Taiwan are of course welcome, but materials and expertise will have to be here, more or less. We are not wealthy either, so the high-end materials and building techniques are probably not going to work for us. In fact, that is part of this experiment, i.e what green options are available to people living on average incomes. Asiababy’s beautiful new home was built for $1.5 million, land and all. We are not restricted to that tight a budget – in fact we probably want more land area than she and her husband have, and that will push up our costs.
So, if I understand you correctly, of course we’re willing to incorporate ideas from other areas of the world. My architect friend has been educated/trained in Taiwan and in the UK. I am going to see him later this summer, so the plan right now is to gather as much info as I can and have another brainstorming round with him when we next get together.
Keep in mind that I am very much thinking out loud in these posts, so please do point out any inconsistencies you see. I am all ears.
I’ve learned a lot from the responses to this thread already – so thanks to you all.
Have you looked at any of the magazines like the 7-11’s My Lohas for ideas? You can probably find it online. They run special focus articles on people doing Green things in Taiwan.
To be a real spoilsport, a true ‘green’ building is moving into an old house and changing the roof and windows.
But I get your point and I would like to build my own ‘more environmentally friendly’ house one day in the countryside.
Thanks for the tip, asiababy. I saw Lohas cited a couple of times during my searches but haven’t looked for the mag.
HH2: there is some irony involved. Thing about building your own house is you can get it just the way you want it. I’m not trying to save the world though, just trying to limit the harm I do while I am here and maybe come up with some good ideas of my own for others to use. Please to be critical. Thanks for the dialogue.
[quote=“Tazzie”]I am not sure if I understand your question, Abacus. We are planning to build and live in Taiwan, so we are looking at options available to us here. Ideas from outside of Taiwan are of course welcome, but materials and expertise will have to be here, more or less. We are not wealthy either, so the high-end materials and building techniques are probably not going to work for us. In fact, that is part of this experiment, i.e what green options are available to people living on average incomes. Asiababy’s beautiful new home was built for $1.5 million, land and all. We are not restricted to that tight a budget – in fact we probably want more land area than she and her husband have, and that will push up our costs.
So, if I understand you correctly, of course we’re willing to incorporate ideas from other areas of the world. My architect friend has been educated/trained in Taiwan and in the UK. I am going to see him later this summer, so the plan right now is to gather as much info as I can and have another brainstorming round with him when we next get together.
Keep in mind that I am very much thinking out loud in these posts, so please do point out any inconsistencies you see. I am all ears.
I’ve learned a lot from the responses to this thread already – so thanks to you all.[/quote]
there’s green architecture all over the world and there are a lot of good ideas don’t involve materials that you can’t find in Taiwan. some of them are in the fundamental layout of the house. How can you minimize the heat due to the sun? How can you maximize airflow to cool it without obnoxious fans blowing your papers around? What are effective ways to insulate your house against heat? What areas can you use bamboo instead of wood? What I’m talking about is the fundamental design of the house? the expensive high tech stuff is cool but usually doesn’t offer good value.
For example I think I remember early in the thread that you mentioned doing an earthen roof (garden). For something like this there is no reason to limit yourself to Taiwan designs. If you expand your search worldwide you’ll likely find 100x more info about what works and doesn’t work and a lot of other innovative ideas that haven’t been done in Taiwan. I think it sounds like a fascinating project but it’s also not something I’ll be doing since at one month’s notice (to sell what little I have) I can be living out of a backpack.
[quote=“Tazzie”]I should add some specifics. We plan to build a modest single-level dwelling in Nantou. Land area might be about 100-200 ping, but he house will be no more than 40-50 ping. Wind power wouldn’t seem practical (although we are not ruling it out if there are great ideas out there) due to the mountains and lack of scale. Passive energy efficiencies resulting from materials and design along with energy from solar – photovoltaic & heating – are on the boards. We plan to have a Taiwan flora garden which will help mitigate heat although the attraction would mostly be for our and our neighbors pleasure. We have a locale in mind but have not purchased land yet.
If you know of any houses which might inspire ideas I would be happy to know about them. I would like to visit places this summer and late in the year.[/quote]
Try contacting Marco Casagrande. His design of the Chen house up in Yangmingshan won some sort of sustainable architecture award. He was also involved with the Taiwan exhibit in Venice for a number of years and a pioneer in the restoration of Treasure Hill. You should also have a look at some of Hsieh Ying-chun’s 謝英俊 projects, especially the rural architecture program for the Thao of Sun Moon Lake.
Thanks, Chung. I may in fact take a visit to Chen House at some point, but I am pretty sure this type of build is way out of our league financially. I know the house is supposed to be quite special, but I don’t think it’s what we have in mind for ourselves. It is a memorable looking building, and I know it has gotten raves both in Taiwan and abroad.
I have to admit that the first thing I thought about when I first thing I thought of when I saw this design was – Mosquitoes!
[quote=“chung”][snip] You should also have a look at some of Hsieh Ying-chun’s 謝英俊 projects, especially the rural architecture program for the Thao of Sun Moon Lake.