Green home design is trending rapidly in the world of real estate. With their fashionable ecological materials, energy efficiency mechanisms, and amazing publicity received in worldwide media, green houses are certainly a thing to watch in the very near future.
There are several factors that have to be taken into consideration when classifying a building as green or not. Here are some of them, including recent trends in green new construction.
Green Home Design Trend #1: Space and Location
With limited natural resources, houses that take up less space are more environmentally friendly than those which extend infinitely. Some argue that overpopulation is not a real threat, but surely occupying more land means less of it for others.
Living in a community requires having a sense of compromise. This also applies to the location of the building, which should consider the natural environment, protected areas, and easy access to public transit.
Green Home Design Trend #2: Shape and design
As much as the location and size are important, so is the shape of the house itself. A green home design should allow users to exploit natural resources in the least possible way.
A home like this should allow plenty of natural light to come in through warm-keeping windows and conserve natural heat inside the well-insulated walls. It should be cool enough in the warm months of summer and warm enough in the time of harsh winter.
Artificial light sources should be designed to use with energy-saving bulbs and provide natural, eye-friendly color. Moreover, they should cover as much space as possible to avoid using multiple sources. There should also be specially designated areas for different kinds of waste collection to facilitate efficient recycling.
Green Home Design Trend #3: Non-toxicity
In the past, real estate developers didn’t pay much attention to the health aspect of the materials they were using. That is why there are thousands of buildings built using dangerous, toxic substances around – for example, asbestos.
Constructing a greenway means avoiding any kind of hazardous materials and substituting them with organic or low-toxic ones. Examples may include specially designed ecological paint formulas or natural insulation materials.
Green Home Design Trend #4: Water saving
Some claim that the new water crisis is at the door and everyone should be prepared for its outbreak. That is why green constructors need to invest in advanced water-saving systems, innovative irrigation plans, and liquid resource recycling.
These can include using some of the water used while washing the dishes or doing the laundry or collecting rainwater. Unfortunately, in some places of the world, the latter is still illegal.
Green Home Design Trend #5: Renovation
Although ecological materials and green guidelines for construction are very trendy nowadays, there are still much more dated buildings, which by no means meet any environmentally friendly standards. For this reason, extensive renovation plans have been outlined, which include making old constructions less dangerous for users and nature.
The extent of these actions is wide, ranging from replacing old windows with new energy-efficient ones, through double glazing and a new type of insulation, to installing solar panels which can provide green power.
