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THE GOODS
3 Ways to Build a SUSTAINABLE Home
From fending off floods to tapping into environmentally friendly energy sources, creating a home that’s in sync with its South Florida surroundings is easy as 1-2-3 By Skye Sherman Building a “future-ready” home isn’t just about smart appliances and high-tech features; prioritizing sustainability is a key piece of the puzzle. “Greening homes in Fort Lauderdale and across the globe is essential to lessen the climate-change impacts our city is already experiencing,” says Glen Hadwen, sustainability manager at the City of Fort Lauderdale. “Changes small and large, from installing LED light bulbs to solar panels, all play a part.” Achieving sustainability in South Florida—with its low elevation, porous geology, humid climate, endangered species, and air rich with sunshine and salt—comes with challenges but is especially important to our delicate environment. Here are some steps you can take to construct a greener home.
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WORK WITH NATURE Use biomimicry—designing the way nature designs—as your guide. Aim for minimal site disturbance and maximum green space; work with what you’ve got to create a space that complements or even regenerates (rather than depletes) the environment. “Check local zoning and figure out first what you’re
allowed to do, then look at sustainable strategies and figure out what’s best to do,” recommends Griffin Morris, president of AIA Fort Lauderdale and senior project manager at Strang—an integrated architecture, engineering, interior design, and planning firm. Account for the threat of climate change, he advises, especially in coastal communities—new builds can employ techniques like elevating the first floor to mitigate potential flooding. “On a new home build, zoning in South Florida typically requires us to use a base flood elevation (how high the ground can be) and a design flood elevation (how high the first floor of the home must be),” he explains. “Sometimes there’s an option for an understory, a covered area below the design flood elevation, usually limited to a garage or enclosed stair. Other zoning areas may require that you add retaining walls and raise the grade on your property.” With Florida’s sea level rising as much as an inch every three years, according to NOAA tidal station data, factoring nature’s upcoming shifts into construction plans is crucial. Victor Caban-Diaz, owner/principal of Building Ingenuity, adds that when designing a home, minimizing floor-to-ceiling windows on southern facades allows for indirect rather than direct sunlight to penetrate your home. “This helps keep the house cool,” he says. “The sun in South Florida rises and falls to the south of all buildings, which means all walls
Coming Soon Poseidon Habitat Seawall, which fabricates ocean-friendly seawalls—available for waterfront residences—will soon be operational in Fort Lauderdale. Instead of the typical flat concrete, which
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is inhospitable to sea creatures, “living” seawalls provide crannies and crevices in which fish and filter-feeders can take up residence, cleaning and nourishing the ecosystem of local waterways as they go. Where possible, it’s best to cultivate a selfsustaining natural shoreline.
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