with Architects

by John Connell. 1993, Warner Books, New York. 400 pages, hardcover, $35.00.

With

Homing Instinct, Connell has contributed the latest in a tradition of how-to books for owner-builders. Following in the footsteps of old classics like

From the Ground Up and

Building... Read more

Adobe/Solar Associates, purveyor of top-notch workshops on passive solar and adobe construction since 1991, has just introduced a free newsletter,

The Mudslinger. ASA’s three-day 1994 workshops are scheduled for May and October in Santa Fe, and April and October in Phoenix. For information, contact Adobe/Solar Associates, 847 E. Palace... Read more

Preliminary results of side-by-side energy testing of a foam-core panel house and a conventional stick-built house are in. The foam-core panel house won, according to the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA). The foam-core house was found to have 40% less heat loss than the conventional house, and its effective leakage area (a measure... Read more

Building Materials

The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), largest research lab of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, has announced a plan to promote increased use of recycled wood fiber in a broad range of housing applications. The project’s stated goal is to develop technologies... Read more

Lever Bros. Co. of New York, a long-time promoter of recycled plastic lumber as an end-use for the plastic packaging of its products, has announced a donation to buy plastic lumber for use in national parks. Up to $100,000 will be used to purchase park benches, picnic tables, and boardwalks for 10 national parks, according to a report in

The recycled plastic and wood fiber composite lumber product (reviewed in EBN

Vol. 2, No. 2) that began as Rivenite and later became Timbrex has a new name yet again. Mobil Chemical Company’s Composite Products Division, maker of the material, is now calling it “Trex™”. The change results from a trademark conflict over the... Read more

This just in from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory: A gas oven consumes more electricity to bake a potato than a microwave oven. That’s right, more

electricity. The glow bar ignitor, which draws 350 to 400 watts during oven start-up, continues to draw power the whole time the oven is on. To bake a moderately sized potato, LBL researcher... Read more

Extruded polystyrene (XPS) is the insulation material of choice for many builders when it comes to below-grade applications and is used in many other ways as well. Commonly referred to by Dow Chemical Company’s tradename Styrofoam®, standard XPS insulation is manufactured in the U.S. by four... Read more

Image Industries, Inc., formerly Image Carpets Inc., has become one of the largest recyclers of PET in the U.S. (Image Carpets has been widely promoted as the premier manufacturer of carpets from recycled plastic resin.) Carpet manufacturing may soon be taking a back seat to PET recycling at the company, which ranked 22nd in sales volume among... Read more

Cellulose Article

The reviews are in on the cellulose story in the September/October issue of EBN. The consensus of the cellulose industry: Quite possibly the best article ever written about cellulose insulation. Of course, everyone doesn’t agree with every word in the piece, but overall the industry seems to think it’s... Read more

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is planning a large-scale center for conferences, environmental education, and recreation on 1,040 acres on Mt. Greylock in Adams. The proposed $6.5 million center will feature state-of-the-art environmental technologies and design strategies. Requests for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) are available by calling... Read more

In 1992 The Glidden Company surprised the interior paint world by offering a latex paint without any volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs in paints have been implicated in indoor air quality (IAQ) problems and environmental illness cases. There has been a strong trend toward lower VOC formulations, spurred in part... Read more

As an architect I see an interesting relationship between the issue of sustainability in architecture, which has the potential to help our planet, and the issue of contextualism, which, if expanded to include “nature,” has the potential to cause enormous growth in the art of architecture.

Contextualism, which... Read more

Green Builder Program, City of Austin, Environmental & Conservation Services Dept., 206 E. 9th Street, Suite 17.102, Austin, TX 78701; 512/499-3500; 512/499-2859 (fax). Three-ring binder format, 440 pages, $25 postpaid.

The Sustainable Building Sourcebook was written to provide background information for... Read more

The CNN Environment Unit is preparing a half-hour show on environmental home renovation featuring EBN Advisory Board members Steve Loken and Marc Rosenbaum. EBN subscribers are invited to suggest renovation ideas, materials, or techniques (for either contractors or do-it- yourselfers) for inclusion in the show, which will air in late May or... Read more

Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, well known for advocating forest management practices that protect wildlife habitat, was named the 13th chief of the U.S. Forest Service on November 17, 1993. Thomas, a wildlife biologist as well as forester who has been with the Service for 27 years, is a leading advocate of “... Read more

The Alcyone Light Centre is offering a three-month course in green architecture in the spring of 1994, and another in sustainable building construction in the summer. Contact Architectural Internship Director, Alcyone Light Centre, 1965 Hilt Rd., Hornbrook, CA 96044; 916/475-3310.

A lot of what we do in our research at EBN is listen to claims. We hear from one group that a particular material is great for the environment, while another group tells us just the opposite. Very often, both interest groups are right …and both are wrong. How can that be? The apparent contradiction lies in selective use of... Read more

Most builders have vaguely heard of those little metal drywall stops that can be used for supporting drywall corners, but remarkably few have ever tried them. More builders we’ve spoken with are familiar with drywall

clips, which are fitted onto the edge of the drywall as it is being installed. Many drywall crews... Read more