Cashiers Architect at the forefront of the green architecture movement
Below is the article that appeared in the Cashiers Chronicle, 9/15/2009, about this Cashiers architect:
it’s original path is: http://www.crossroadschronicle.com/articles/2009/09/15/news/03green.txt
Local Architect Pushes Green Practices
By David Joy – staff writer (Crossroads Chronicle)
Recently celebrating 25 years of designing custom homes across the U.S., Cashiers-based architect Rand Soellner has an interesting outlook on home design.
Though the coined term “green” is a recent fad, Soellner explained that environmentally friendly home designs have been available for hundreds of years, and he has been designing and creating these “green” homes since the 1970s.
“I went to the University of Florida and that was just part of the curriculum,” Soellner said. “They always inspired in us a desire to connect with the environment.”
Soellner feels that it is important for homes to blend into the landscape and for developers to take on as much environmental responsibility as they can.
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For these reasons, Soellner has spent his career designing homes that look like they sprang up from the landscape and has recently incorporated fresh ideas to raise environmental consciousness at his home sites.
Incorporating energy-saving insulation and an extra dumpster at each site to recycle material, Soellner thinks developers need incentives to push the incorporation of “green” ideas.
“You have to have an economic incentive for people to do things,” Soellner explained. “One of the reasons we’ve come up with the idea of two dumpsters is because it doesn’t cost anything more, you can recycle all that waste material, the contractor can make money by selling it to the recyclers, the recyclers can make money by selling it to big companies, and the companies can make money by selling it to the consumers.
“When a home is finally finished the volume of trash is approximately equal in size to the built home,” Soellner added. “If we can recycle half the waste debris and sell that to companies, they can reuse it.”
Beyond incorporating “green” building practices into home design, Soellner is known worldwide for his ability to design homes that fit in with the surrounding landscapes.
Soellner feels that it is extremely important everywhere to design homes that do not disrupt the natural beauty of the place, but that it is particularly important in the mountains.
“I think it’s important to preserve in the way that we design homes so that the same values that drew us here when we moved here continue to do so once we build our homes,” Soellner explained.
“I’ve seen places where all of the beautiful hillside was devastated by developers destroying the very thing that attracted people to it in the first place with this carpet of asphalt. I think it is very important to be careful how we develop Cashiers, Lake Toxaway, Highlands, Glenville, and Sapphire.”
The ways that Soellner believes home designers can compliment the surrounding landscape is by using colors and textures that mimic those around the home. By using natural tones and indigenous materials, such as rocks and bark, the home will look like it emerged from the landscape rather than plopped into it.
“In the end, you are doing something for the community, doing something for the environment, and you might even put some money in your pocket,” Soellner concluded. “We call it going green for less.” (Since renamed: Going Green 4 less ).
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Contact Information for Cashiers Architect :
Rand Soellner, Cashiers architect
Rand Soellner, AIA/NCARB
Mr. Soellner is one of a new breed of green home architects. For more information on this interesting topic, please click on the hotlink phrase in this sentence. As a Cashiers architect, Soellner is concerned about keeping the green, beautiful places on our planet green and beautiful.
This really comes home to those people fortunate enough to live in scenic locations. Being a Cashiers architect, Soellner and his family appreciate this pristine environment and seek to use and develop practices that sustain an enlightened development of such wonderful places. For those of you who may not be familiar with Cashiers, it is near the southern tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
social media tags: Cashiers architect, green home architects, highlands architecture, home architects, energy efficient home design, brevard, Asheville, Hendersonville, Atlanta, Glenville, timber frame architects, post and beam, burbank, aspen, rocky mountains.
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GREEN HOME DESIGN UNIVERSITY QUESTIONS, for those of you taking Rand Soellner Architect’s course of green instruction: about the above subject:
1. What is a “Green Agenda?
a. Driving a chartreuse vehicle.
b. Promoting responsible energy conservation in house construction, recycling and environmental sustainability.
c. Having a really big lawn.
2. It is wise to do what?
a. Buy a Hummer with a large gasoline engine.
b. Have an economic incentive to make energy conservative choices.
c. Leave all your doors and windows open during the winter.
d. Buy the cheapest air-conditioning system possible.
3. What should be done with construction debris while build new houses:
a. bury it on-site.
b. have 2 dumpsters: one for recycled materials, one for landfill trash.
c. burn it all while building.
If you are continuing in your Green Home Design University course to the next level,
Favorite this page now, by clicking on your “Favorites” menu choice in the upper left of your Windows Internet Explorer window,
then click here: Energy Star Home Architects to go to the next level 13.
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answers:
1. b., 2. b., 3. b.
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