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Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature
All books in the category Green DIY and Home Improvement
by: Carol Venolia, Kelly Lerner
Topics include:
To have a home that?s more in touch with the earth, you don?t have to start from the ground up! It?s possible?and more environmentally friendly?to go green by renovating an existing home. With the help of Carol Venolia, an award-winning architect and bestselling author, and Kelly Lerner, a world-famous innovator in the field of sustainable development, even the least mechanically inclined person can make a difference in his or her dwelling?and to the planet. The two have produced a remarkable book?packed with information and photos, and the first ever in full color to cover the subject. It?s lush and exquisite to look at, filled with motivational case studies and informative graphics, and completely user-friendly.
?Some of us would like to become more Earth-Friendly, but we don?t have 10,00 acres in Montana or the passive solar ATM machine to get us the cash to buy the above. Breathe! Center! There is help. Groundbreaking architects, Kelly Lerner and Carol Venolia have just completed a book (to help you). There are plenty of checklists and resource guides to go with all the glossy photos.? -- Kevin Taylor, The Pacific Northwest Inlander
?You don't have to build a new home to have a green home. The book builds on the construction wisdom our forebears used to design homes that capitalized on nature's light, warmth, coolness and other benefits. Venolia and Lerner cover everything from simple changes to complex systems that make a home more ecologically sensitive, comfortable and livable. The book is dense with ideas and information for homeowners considering renovations.? --Akron Beacon Journal
Kelly Laerner is an innovative architect who spearheaded a project responsible for building more than 600 passive-solar-heated straw-bale houses in China. Her designs have been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The Straw Bale House, and Green by Design.
Carol Venolia specializes in the field of eco-healthy building. Her first book, Healing Environments, has enjoyed international success, and her home designs have been featured in The Natural House Catalog, Earth to Spirit, The Healthy House, and Environ magazine. Carol currently writes the "Design for Life" column for Natural Home and Garden magazine.
About the Author
Carol Venolia specializes in the field of eco-healthy building. Her first book, Healing Environments, has enjoyed international success, and her home designs have been featured in The Natural House Catalog, Earth to Spirit, The Healthy House, and Environ magazine. Carol currently writes the "Design for Life" column for Natural Home and Garden magazine.
Kelly Lerner is an award-winning architect and innovator in the fields of sustainable development, straw-bale construction, and earthen plasters. She spearheaded an internationally recognized project responsible for building more than 600 passive-solar-heated straw-bale houses in China. Her designs have been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The Straw Bale House, Serious Straw Bale, The New Straw Bale House, and Green by Design.
Reviews:
Books on remodeling have tended to take one of two tracks: aesthetics and harmony with lifestyle or environmentally sensitive and responsible. With this book, the authors have taken an important step in integrating what has been the somewhat esoteric field of green 'thinking' with mainstream remodeling. They enable us to recognize that these paths not only complement each other, but drawn together open an entirely new range of creative and spatial possibilities. I like this book a lot. What really set it apart were the authors' broad knowledge of green building practices, eye for detail and sensitivity to clients' needs and budgets. Their passion for bringing the possibilities of green to the mainstream is evident through out the book, and contagious. Highly recommended.
The Green Building Book to Read First
First, I have to disclose that author Carol Venolia and I have been friends for over twenty years, and we have been discussing this subject for all that time. So my review is a bit biased in that regard. Please do believe me, however, that this is an incredible book that will change how you think about building and your place in, relationship with, and how you interact with Nature.
This is unique among green building books in two ways: it addresses remodeling houses (most green building books are about new construction) and it focuses on ways to welcome the flows of nature into your home--sun, air, and water--to provide not just function, but joy.
In a world where green building is about materials and certifications and sometimes complex engineering, Carol and Kelly bring us simple things we can do to bring our own existing homes and ourselves into greater harmony with the natural environment in which we dwell. This book goes beyond saying "bring in the sun for natural light'...it actually shows a diagram of the sun's changing path in relation to a house throughout the year, a chart of qualities of sunlight from different directions, gives you step-by-step instructions on how to figure out how best to bring the sun into your home (or shade it out, as the case may be) and much more.
Because Carol and Kelly have actual hand-on expeience applying all these concepts in design projects for their clients, the book is full of the kind of important tips that come only from actually doing what you are writing about. For example, Carol's climate rose that neatly sums up all the climate data for a site in a single diagram--directions of prevailing winds, winter storms, and sun' path, so this data is at your fingertips when making design decisions.
I just can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate that Carol and Kelly have written this book and how needed and important it is. It redefines the concept of "natural" from referring to a consumer product made from natural ingredients to meaning "integrating our lives into the flows of nature". This is where we need to go, not just with remodeling, but with every aspect of our lives, individually and collectively. Carol and Kelly understand this and are showing us all first steps we can take in this direction.
