A lot of folks are thinking about down sizing their homes these days, if that’s you then this EDGE house is a compact way to go. The award-winning EDGE, which stands for Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment, is a 320 square foot home designed by Wisconsin’s Bill Yudchitz of the design firm Revelation Architects.
Meant to show that we can live greener and better lives in smaller well crafted spaces, the EDGE house is a modular home complete with eco-friendly features that include rainwater collection, geothermal heating and cooling, air-to-air heat recovery, passive solar windows, and insulated external shutter doors that minimize night time heat loss. It comes with multi-functional furniture and two loft-type bedrooms. It’s simple construction allows it to be disassembled and moved as needed.
The EDGE has everything you need – a kitchen, bathroom, bookshelves and storage, and a cube-like central “living room” surrounded on two sides by floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors. Elegance in a small package.
Whether as a full-time residence or vacation home, the EDGE can run you between $60,000 to $150,000. But if you think that less is more, the EDGE may be just what you’re looking for.
Several details of this design make it unique to other prefab designs. The “kinetic facade” rain screen, which consists of tall louvred panels, can be closed over the passive solar windows to insulate the interior and protect the E.D.G.E. when unoccupied. It contains two lofts with full staircases, and the furniture is custom made for the house and is multi-functional. In fact, the dining room furniture transforms into a bed.
Tags: eco+gadget, edge+house, eco+house, tiny+house