green modern living room design
nicole facciutto: hi. i'm nicole facciutto. and today we're in the hills ofnorthern california at one of the most extraordinaryhomes in the country. not only is it the first leedcertified platinum home in gorgeous marin county, but oneof only a handful built in the entire golden state. and this house is stunning. it's a hillside dwelling at thevery peak of built green.
[music playing] nicole facciutto: from in-floorhydronic heating and fully automated lighting tosolar panels on the roof, this house was built withsustainability in mind from top to bottom. so today we're here with michaelmcdonald, the builder of this extraordinary home. thanks for coming by. michael mcdonald: my pleasure.
nicole facciutto: i can'twait to see it. michael mcdonald: let'scheck it out. nicole facciutto: all right. michael mcdonald: let's do it. basically what we did on thisproject is we talked a little bit about the aesthetics thatdrove a lot of the choices. but what we also do is we chosepartners on the project, local craftspeople and thenbigger companies like kohler and jenn-air that were amazing,big companies that
had awesome products. so we had this combination ofpartnerships where we said, hey, guys, come and work with usif you can and show us your greatest stuff. nicole facciutto: well, theone thing that i'm hearing from you, and that i can see,is that it really is almost design first. you don't know thatit's a green home. michael mcdonald: we'redesigners and builders.
and sustainability has becomevery important to us. oftentimes, i'm asked, well,what do you have to sacrifice to have a green home? and i say-- i look around at this house, orsome of the other projects we've built. i've said, i don't know. you tell me. what do we sacrifice?
nicole facciutto: nothing. michael mcdonald: so we'vetried to make the sustainability components ofthe project disappear. nicole facciutto: by utilizingrecycled and locally sourced materials, the designers andbuilders have drastically reduced the environmental impactof building this home. scott lee: we wanted to make ahouse that was green and was sustainable, but the aestheticdirection of the house wasn't compromised.
we wanted it to look like anatural, rough-hewn house made of natural materials and maybebe a little bit more stealth about the sustainability. michael mcdonald: the otherthing that was really challenging about this projectis it's built on a really steep hillside, asyou can tell. nicole facciutto:becausehow many floors? there's four? michael mcdonald: four.
so very small lot, really steep,really steep, no real outdoor space. and what we're standingon here is the lawn. and it's made from recycledplastics. and it's got a soy-basedbacking on it. what's sustainable aboutit is that it doesn't take any water. it doesn't take anyfertilizers. you don't have to cut it.
but it's still a really coolplace to hang out. scott lee: well, thereare several green features of the house. the choice of usingsolar electricity was an obvious one. the one that was a little bitless obvious was the use of solar hot water. because we have a radiantheating system in the floor, we thought we would use thepreheating of the water with
the solar panels on the roof andthen re-heating it with a high-efficiency boiler, and thencirculating that water throughout the floors,particularly in the winter. nicole facciutto: along withthose green features, the hillside home is fullyautomated, which helps add to its sustainability. scott lee: this is the homeautomation system. we're using this to reallycontrol every aspect of the electronics in the house.
and then the shades, we cancontrol how much natural light and how much heat gain isallowed into the house by operating the concealedshades at every level. nicole facciutto: and finally,the house is outfitted exclusively with kohlerhigh-efficiency showers, faucets, and toilets. scott lee: the use of water,or the using of the least amount of water possiblewas a concern of ours. and so we struck a partnershipwith kohler.
and they provided us withplumbing fixtures. and we feel that we'vediminished the use of water to the greatest degree possible,but at the same time, still being able to shower and use theplumbing fixtures in the way that they were intended. shane judd: the rise in greenbuilding has been dramatic. and sustainability has becomereally top of mind. kohler fits into that verynicely in that we have a great opportunity to provide thatwater conserving aspect in the
footprint of thosegreen buildings. nicole facciutto: lovehome and design? make sure to subscribe tospacestv on youtube.