Innovation & Design Process
Target: 6 points
The team was established early in the process. We held numerous design charrettes throughout the design process including the one shown involving the core team of owners, architect, engineer, contractor, landscape architect and landscape contractor.
A key feature of the LEED for Homes program is an emphasis on durability. Durability is the ability of the house to maintain its function with a reasonable level of planned maintenance for its expected life. Durability is relative and related to expected environmental conditions. A house at the North Pole faces a vastly different environment that one at the equator. Cost is also a key factor in durability as it is in the other areas of designing and building a house you want to live in.
Key factors affecting the life of a house are internal and external moisture, sunlight, temperature, insects, animals, fungi, mold, wear and tear, and natural hazards. In the durability evaluation, all the expected threats and the ways these threats can diminish durability are evaluated and strategies to counter threats are identified. A checklist to make sure the strategies are incorporated in the construction of the house is created. This checklist can also serve as a quality checklist during construction to make sure important durability measures are not overlooked. The strategy of formally evaluating durability and creating a checklist caused several changes in the design of our house including the use of a rain screen under the cedar siding, extending the roof overhangs and moving vegetation further from the house.