TMCnet News
What makes this garden think it's so SMART?(Chicago Tribune (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 7--Those stately bur oaks have seen a lot of bright ideas. In 1893, they shared the glow when brand-new electric lights illuminated the White City. Now they overlook green roofs, LED lamps, rain barrels and a bioswale. Beneath their boughs spreads the landscape of a Smart Home, built to demonstrate, inside and out, how new technologies, new ideas and new attitudes can help a family live more gently on the land. And the whole thing is nestled between wings of the Museum of Science and Industry -- the only remaining building from the World's Columbian Exposition, which showed off the big ideas of the 19th Century. The "Smart Home: Green + Wired" exhibit is a full-size, fully functioning home constructed on the museum's grounds. The building's architect, Californian Michelle Kaufmann, set out to demonstrate ways large and small that a typical family could reduce its environmental impact. The big ideas indoors have to do with modular building; saving energy, often by high-tech automation, monitoring and control (after all, it's co-sponsored by WIRED magazine); living more richly in a smaller space; natural ventilation and cooling; collecting solar energy; re-using, in often elegant ways, materials that once would have gone to landfills, such as old wood, glass and even light bulbs; reducing water use and heat loss; finding sustainable sources; and working recycling and other earth-friendly practices into the regular rhythm of life. The home's many features can be seen up close on daily tours through Jan. 4. But the outdoors is more than just a frame for the house. It is also full of big ideas. BIG IDEA: Respect the landscape. Rather than scraping the site bare, Kaufmann and landscape architect Bernard Jacobs of Jacobs/Ryan Associates in Chicago nestled the house under the 150-year-old oak grove in a neglected patch of weedy grass close to where the U-505 submarine once stood. The oaks shade the house to keep it cool and make a leafy bower of a second-floor deck. BIG IDEA: Save water. This landscape was designed so that once established, the plants should be able to get by on rainfall. Apart from the vegetables, most of the species are native to habitats in this region: dry prairie, wet prairie and oak savanna. BIG IDEA: Capture each raindrop. The goal, Jacobs says, was to keep all rain on the site and not let any run off into the storm sewers, where storm water adds to the load of wastewater that must be treated and can wash pollutants into waterways and lakes. The yard is sculpted so rainwater has places to collect: a rock-lined pool by the front door; a rain garden full of attractive plants such as swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), which don't mind having their roots wet; and a bioswale -- a shallower depression, full of native perennials and sedges -- that soaks up the overflow and filters out particles of pollution. BIG IDEA: Let it flow. As a museum exhibit, the house has a lot more driveway than it would need on a typical city or suburban lot. But unlike a concrete or asphalt slab that channels rainwater into storm sewers, this driveway was constructed of gravel-set pavers that let rain flow right through. The water is stored in the deep layer of gravel until it soaks into the subsoil, where it can nourish those oaks. "It's a big circle," Ryan says. BIG IDEA: Green up. About 80 percent of the roof, in four patches, is planted, mostly with a variety of succulent sedums. The plants -- installed over a waterproof membrane in self-contained recycled plastic trays containing a lightweight growing medium -- will absorb roughly 30 percent of the rain that falls, Jacobs says. (The rest goes through downspouts into rain barrels, where it's available to water the vegetable garden.) Green roofs also provide excellent insulation, keeping the house cooler in summer and warmer in winter. BIG IDEA: Grow your own. Locally grown food has a smaller carbon footprint because it isn't shipped as far. And what's more local than your own backyard? Outside the Smart Home is an intensely planted organic vegetable garden, maintained by more than 100 Master Gardener volunteers from the University of Illinois Extension. Other vegetables are grown in self-contained planters. BIG IDEA: Live outdoors. Three decks extend the house's living space. That way, the building can be smaller, taking less energy to heat and cool. And with spaces that invite them to spend time outside, the homeowners can run the cooling system less. The home is scheduled to close in January. That leaves you plenty of time to take a look. As the seasons change, "it's a moving composition," Jacobs says. And in early fall, many of the native plants in the garden, such as switch grass (Panicum virgatum) and stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), are in their glory. [email protected] --ON OUR COVER (clockwise from top): The "Smart Home: Green + Wired" house was nestled under the 150-year-old oak grove to keep the house cool and make a leafy bower of a second-floor roof deck; plants installed on the roof in self-contained recycled plastic trays will absorb roughly 30 percent of the rain that falls and provide insulation for the house; species, such as purple coneflower, were chosen because they are native to habitats in this region and should be able to get by on rainfall, rather than watering. COVER STORY To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Chicago Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |