Dwell Development Receives Prestigious Housing Award
U.S. Department of Energy’s Housing Innovation Award recognizes industry leaders
The Energy Department presented Housing Innovation Awards to 24 industry leaders
from across the nation during the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance’s
Excellence in Building Conference in Denver, CO. These winners are “leading the
movement to zero energy ready homes providing better places for Americans to
live, stronger communities, and a more economically and environmentally
resilient nation.”
“Housing Innovation Award winners such as Dwell Development are leading a major
housing industry transformation to zero energy ready homes. This level of performance
is the home of the future because it improves the way Americans live by substantially
reducing or eliminating utility bills, ensuring engineered comfort way beyond traditional
homes, protecting health with a comprehensive package of indoor air quality measures,
and helping maximize the largest investment of a lifetime,” said Sam Rashkin, Chief
Architect at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office.
Builder, Dwell Development, is a winner in the production category. Take a virtual tour
of this home by visiting the DOE Tour of Zero webpage.
Builder Anthony Maschmedt is taking something old to make something new in Seattle.
His award winning Reclaimed Modern home is a perfect marriage of old and new,
blending recycled and reclaimed materials with a modern design and the leading edge
high-performance features of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready
Home program for a home that is both visually interesting and highly efficient.
“We tell home buyers all about the energy efficiency when we walk them through
the home. It’s true that more people are coming to us because of the efficiency. Buyers
are smart, they do their homework, they want efficiency and health,” said Maschmedt.
But he acknowledges that many people who buy his homes, which he refers to as
custom spec because they are often purchased after construction has started, are
buying because “they like the cool finishes, the floor plan, and the interesting look.”
The Reclaimed Modern home certainly has an interesting look from the curb. The
exterior cladding includes corrugated metal roofing from an old barn in central Oregon.
Reclaimed barn wood was used for fencing.
On the interiors, they included woods repurposed from fallen trees that were cut at a mill in Montana. The counter tops are 85% post-consumer recycled glass and aggregate concrete made in a local factory that was housed in the old Rainier brewery building. Cabinets are from a local manufacturer and have no added formaldehyde or VOCs. “My wife Abbey has really made the push toward reclaimed materials inside and out. It provides a unique aesthetic, mixing the old and the new in the modern design, that brings up some fun conversations with prospective buyers,” said Maschmedt.
Read the full case study here.
Since 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy’s
(DOE) Builders Challenge program has recognized hundreds of leading builders for their achievements in energy efficiency—resulting in millions of dollars in energy savings. The DOE Zero Energy Ready Home — an ambitious successor to the Builders Challenge program — represents a whole new level of home performance, with rigorous requirements that ensure outstanding levels of energy savings, comfort, health, and durability on the path to zero energy ready homes. A Zero Energy Ready Home is a high performance home that is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system can offset all or most of its annual energy consumption. To learn more about DOE’s Housing Innovation Awards Program, visit http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/housing-‐innovation-‐awards. To take a virtual tour of DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes in your climate region, visit http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/doe-‐tour-‐zero.
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