Artisan Construction and the move toward Green Building
by Doug Lowe
Artisan Construction has been building homes in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area since the late 80's. Our company is a full-service general contracting firm involved with both commercial and residential projects. On the commercial side we are heavily involved in commercial renovations with particular emphasis on medical and industrial projects. We also build new buildings. On the residential front we usually build only eight to ten distinctively custom projects each year. We always strive to build top quality buildings.
Over the years, I have become increasingly interested in "Green Building". It started with a keen interest in energy efficient buildings, but it has evolved into much more. Low energy usage is only one aspect of green building. If you were to ask five different people what green building means, you are likely to find five different answers. Despite the different answers, you are likely to find some common themes. You are likely to find comments about energy efficiency, sustainable materials, recycled materials, easily renewable resources, indoor air quality, healthy indoor environment, low water usage, waste management during construction and many other terms. Increasingly, you will find that many people will include comments about the actual location of the project in their definition. It is easily argued that there are many environmental benefits to building closer to the town center for many obvious reasons.
From my viewpoint, green building is a philosophical approach to building for those who share a genuine concern for the environment that all of us share. I would encourage individuals who are considering building any structure to take a step back and put some careful thought into the process you are embarking on. You can incorporate many green building principles for very little or no additional costs in your project. Many customers are willing to go significantly further and spend additional dollars to include as many green concepts as possible even if the immediate payback seems to be small.
I mentioned earlier that my company works on both commercial and residential projects. On most commercial projects, I have very little influence on the design and specifications, but many of our commercial projects have green building features already in the design. On the residential front, I am usually involved with the customer during the design phase and I openly encourage them to incorporate green building principles in the design and the specifications. Projects that we are currently working on include many great features such as:
- Insulated concrete foundations (ICF's)
- Super high efficient heating and cooling equipment
- Geothermal systems
- Passive solar design
- Green Roof and/or earth roof system
- Rain gardens
- Active solar specifications for hot water
- Exterior shading systems
- Recycled carpet
- Reclaimed wood flooring
- Bamboo flooring
- Low VOC paints
- Low-E windows
- Metal Roofing
- Cementitious Siding
- Fresh air intake for the whole building
- Dehumidification systems
- Deliberate recycling of much of the construction waste
- Grey water recovery
- Roof water cistern systems for irrigation and/or potable water
If these type of construction techniques are of interest to you, please do not hesitate to contact me with your questions or if you would like to visit one of our sites. We are committed to building green projects and would love to be of service to you.
Thank you,
Doug Lowe
President, Artisan Construction, Inc.
mdlowe@artisaninc.com
434.979.6399 x102