The South Beach Cottage, an exciting new residential construction project that will be constructed in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.Building an affordable sustainable home from the ground up.
Project name:
The South Beach Cottage, an affordable energy efficient home
2700 St. Johns Blvd, Jacksonville Beach, FL
Owner: True House, Inc.
Builder: Advantage Homebuilders
Design Team:
Project Designer: True Design Studios
Structural Engineer: Apex Technology
Mechanical Engineer: Yorgos Gaitantzis
It seems everyone has an opinion of what Green Building means and it’s easy to understand why. There are so many Green Building certification programs, Green Building materials and Green Building practices it is no wonder most folks don’t know where to start. Once you consider the amount of time required to educate yourself on this subject it can become a bit overwhelming. It is precisely this subject matter that served as the impetus for our project, The South Beach Cottage.
From the beginning our goal has been to design and build a home that provides a clear solution to the challenges of building an affordable energy efficient home with high quality architectural appeal that would be cost competitive with prevalent construction practices. Obviously we wanted to meet the requirements of the Florida Energy Code but we also wanted to produce a design strategy that would allow for meeting more stringent requirements as defined by Florida State legislation H.B. 7135. This legislation requires a 20% increase in energy efficiency based on the 2007 Florida building code by 2010, increasing to a 50% performance improvement by the 2019 edition.
Beginning with the foundation we decided to use a raised wood floor design. We found this type of foundation to offer considerable advantages over a conventional concrete slab. The first advantage is an enclosed crawl space to allow access to plumbing and provides a cooler temperate environment, as opposed to a hot attic for location of the homes air conditioning ductwork. It also enhances the homes curb appeal by increasing its height to allow for livable elevated porches as well as providing protection of the exterior wall finish from the weathering effects of rain.
We also chose to incorporate advance framing techniques and innovative structural design to minimize the total number of wood framing materials required for the walls, floors and roof. An Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) process was followed and allowed the design team to value optimize the entire structure and make efficient use of building components including wood floor panels, wall panels and roof trusses. The IPD process was facilitated by the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) software specifically formatted for residential construction projects.
The use of these materials and methods improves several facets of the design and overall operation of the structure. By striving to exceed the minimum code standard for energy efficiency, we have created a home that is less expensive to maintain. Through choosing a raised wood floor foundation, the visual appeal was increased and it also gave us the room to facilitate an enhanced mechanical system. Last but not least, the use of effective building components allowed us to keep construction cost and time at a minimum. The inevitable conclusion is a home that is cost effective to build, less expensive to operate and possesses a high quality aesthetic.
Construction is scheduled to commence the last week of March. The American Plywood Association will be hosting two site events at the house. The first will be for individuals directly or indirectly involved in the home building industry and is scheduled for April 21st, 2011. The second event will be open to the general public and is tentatively scheduled for sometime in late May or early June.