Earth-Sheltered Home Hovers over Pacific Ocean

http://www.solaripedia.com/13/178/Cooper+Point+Shelters+Off-Grid+Home+%28California%2C+USA%29.htmlThe owners of this home near Big Sur, California, estimate that they’ve cut their overall energy consumption by half, if not more. The house is completely self-sufficient and independent from the PG&E grid, with power coming from a bank of solar panels. The house’s long, tapered profile, reduces resistance to the winds that, on occasion, blow more than 100 miles per hour off the ocean. Architect Mickey Muennig of Big Sur, began his education by studying aeronautical engineering at Georgia Tech before switching to architecture.

Building Mimics Processes of a Tree

Made up of biological and technical 'nutrients' the Bernheim Arboretum Visitor Center building exemplifies the Cradle-to-Cradle approach to design, according to William McDonough, author of Cradle To Cradle and architect of the project. "Imagine a building like a tree; it makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, purifies water, builds soil, provides habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro climates and changes colors with the seasons. The Bernheim Visitor Center can do all this and more. If a building could be alive it would be this building."