A year ago, we published material on the M:OME. I was quite excited that a consortium of architects and builders had come together for the purpose of creating buildings/homes that were sustainable but also affordable. We did a special issue on the topic of Sustainable and Affordable Housing and all the projects that we reported were unfortunately not from this tri-county area. Affordable often times means using toxic building supplies and having no concern for the environment. On the other hand, many of the "sustainabale" buildings are for the few wealthy individuals who can afford the luxury of owning a toxic-free and environmentally friendly home. That is why I’m even more excited now since the M:OME consortium have found property and are working with others on this project. Even the SLO daily paper, The Tribune, had a feature article on the Bridge Street project on the front cover of one of its Sunday editions (called "Home, Sweet Green Home," July 6, 2003). The article that follows is more in depth and is written by two of the architects of this project.

The mission is simple: create modern affordable housing that belongs to its climate and region, sustains itself and its owners while supporting community and environment alike.

The architects, builders, and landowners of the M:OME/Bridge Street Neighborhood (BSN), a $6.5 million dollar housing development in the City of San Luis Obispo, intend to bring environmentally-friendly housing to a wider market. The team endeavors to make 50% of the 21 units affordable following the "moderate income" Federal Affordable Housing Standards. In addition, the market-rate homes would be equipped with one-bedroom units above the freestanding garages, allowing rental income to offset mortgage costs.

The architects of M:OME/BSN, Laura Joines-Novotny and Tom Di Santo, have an attendant love of form, function, firmness, and efficiency — endeavoring to create homes that are at once beautiful, structural, useful, and sustainable (meaning: both healthy and self-sufficient). This approach carries over into the design of the neighborhood as well, creating a sense of place, and community, with a direct connection to nature.

The M:OME homes within the BSN are designed as a fine-tuned regional response to the latitude, climate and geography of central, coastal California. The architects believe that a house is a "machine for living" such that it sustains itself by generating its own electricity, heat and hot water and has an integrated means for cooling in the summer months and rainwater collection in the winter.

A house design must emanate from the specific characteristics of its site and the conditions of place. The modular or pre-manufactured home is another means for achieving affordability but at what cost? Do we really want affordability with a patent disregard for climate, site, geography, regional aesthetics and values? To eliminate all suspense, the architects of M:OME say, "NO." M:OME wishes to bridge the gap between the extremes of modular homes and developer-driven tract homes on the one hand and the custom-designed houses by architects that are out of reach by most homeowners requiring affordability.

The M:OME is designed as a skin-and-bones system similar to the human body. The structural steel skeleton is exposed on the inside and the skin of the building wraps the exterior. The building skin functions as a malleable and protective layer that adapts to its environment. Consequently, the skin of the west wall needs to look and behave fundamentally different than the skin of any other orientation. Similarly, the skins of the east, north and south walls must also respond to their respective orientations. Further, the microclimate of the region must enter into the design. The skin for our tropical M:OME in Hawaii, for example, reads differently than that of our mountain M:OME in the Rockies, or our desert M:OME in the Southwest.

Within a single region, a housing response can be similar, thus in our current design for the Bridge Street Neighborhood, we make modifications to each home to balance light, view, heat gain and appropriate shading. This also gives the neighborhood a variation in color, form and material rather than defaulting to homogeneity and monotony.

II.

The Bridge Street Project team includes a number of key members. The architects of garcia architecture + design, under the stewardship of George Garcia, AIA, share the same M:OME values, combined with the knowledge, technical ability and staff to bring the work to fruition.

Philip Novotny, co-owner of the local company BOB Trailers, Inc. (bicycle trailers and kid strollers) and a co-founder of M:OME, brings an understanding of manufacturing, innovation and assembly-line efficiency to the project, as well as business savvy and an acute understanding of marketing and public relations.

Crizer Construction, owned by Bob Crizer, brings the dedication to sustainable and affordable practices in construction, while Tyler Hanson of Crizer Construction conveys an uncompromising exuberance for Green building technologies and principles that is equally inspirational and comforting.

Larry Santoyo, the renowned permaculture expert of the Los Osos-based Earth Flow, has been instrumental in instilling a permaculture attitude throughout the project. Mark Wilson lends an affordable housing developer’s point-of-view drawing upon his experience with the local non-profit company People’s Self-Help Housing.

Finally, the project would not be possible without the landowners, John and Mary Semon, and their perception that people such as their daughter would never be able to own a home in San Luis Obispo unless someone developed housing for the workforce population. San Luis Obispo desperately needs teachers, firefighters, police, professors, etc., to help sustain the community, yet offers little in return for these members of the workforce who wish to own a home in the community they serve. A national survey this year revealed that San Luis Obispo County is among the top ten most expensive places to live in the nation when median home price is compared with median income.

The members of the M:OME/Bridge Street Project team wish to reverse this trend.

III. Site Design Philosophy

"Permaculture is the art and science that applies patterns found in nature to the design and construction of human and natural environments. Only by applying such patterns and principles to the built environment can we truly achieve a sustainable living system. Permaculture principles are now being adapted to all systems and disciplines that human settlement requires. Architects, planners, farmers, economists, social scientists, as well as students, homeowners and backyard gardeners can utilize principles of Permaculture Design." — Larry Santoyo

The goal is to create a neighborhood based on the principles of permanent culture or "permaculture," adopting an attitude of sensitivity to the site. The goal of the housing is to place it lightly on the land by respecting the existing vegetation and habitats. The M:OME definition of a successful design is a self-managed system, with regard for both site and housing. The Bridge Street community of housing would be harmoniously integrated into the natural setting in a way that supports a healthy micro-community. The neighborhood is a size in which people are able to know and be known by others and where each member feels able to influence the community’s direction. The variety of housing options provides inherent diversity of owners, both in lifestyle and income. The assortment of homes available would include one- and two-bedroom live/work spaces, three-bedroom attached housing and four-bedroom detached units with one-bedroom granny units: 21 lots, 25 units in all.

The Elements of a typical neighborhood would be present on the site:

• Residence
• Potential rental income or granny units
• Food grown in common/private gardens
• Leisure
• Social/community life

Every building in the Bridge Street neighborhood would feature:

• Natural / non-toxic materials for building
• Solar orientation for light and temperature control
• Maximum daylighting to minimize reliance on power
• Design and construction for longevity
• Permaculture and a whole-systems approach in the building design, siting and landscaping
• Much of the house energy generated from renewable solar energy sources

The houses will rest on landscaping resembling the original site and the surrounding hills. The housing placement forms a common area for a community orchard, gardens, mailboxes, shared electric cars and bike benches that allow residents to interact. In addition, turf pavers and decomposed granite will be used on the vehicular surfaces to allow greater percolation into the water table, and greater sensitivity to the original feel of the site.

One of the most important issues for the site design of this parcel is the natural flow of water from the surrounding hills through the site. Our proposal is to plant an orchard in the northern catchment ravine to control erosion and capture some of the rainfall for irrigation as it comes down the hill. This addresses the permaculture principle of water catchment and soil fertility as high (in elevation) on the landscape as possible.

Because of the serpentine rock at a shallow level on the site, the water sheet flows through the site rather than percolating down. Vegetated contour swales would address this problem by acting to harvest seasonal sheet flow of rainfall, which would slowly infiltrate and recharge groundwater downslope, thus retaining moisture in the landscape much longer. This is called "pattern application" in permaculture. More than an aesthetic caprice, these contours will now direct water flow and nutrient dispersal with maximum efficiency via gravity. If needed, drip irrigation systems will be laid on these level horizons where flow will not be interrupted by elevations, which would otherwise cause pooling.

Permaculture principles of "edge effect" are used in retaining the existing vegetation of brambles in the wildlife corridor (a dense blackberry thicket that forms a green corridor for wildlife to live, and a physical and visual boundary to the southern edge of the site). An edge is an interface between two mediums; in our case this would be the edge between the houses and the neighboring property to the north. Diversity, productivity and nutrients are enhanced at these edges.

The scale and economy of the Bridge Street Project could possibly allow the site to have shared-use Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) as a mode of transportation. Electric vehicles would be available on a per-trip basis for regional use by residents, providing a built-in system for car-sharing, and a means to reduce vehicle emissions and noise pollution. In addition, covered bicycle parking is provided on several different areas of the site.

IV. Building Design Philosophy

Every architectural style in history has developed in response to the perceived needs of the day. The Bridge Street Project responds to the American need for a house that is warm, friendly, affordable and economical to operate; an efficient machine with integrated environmentally-friendly technologies. A new Victorian, Craftsman or Mission style home with photovoltaic panels, water catchment systems, solar water heaters, sunshade devices, would appear incongruent and anachronistic.

The inverted gable roof provides the water catchment system, an optimal photovoltaic roof angle, and a unique aesthetic while obscuring from vision the roof equipment. In addition, the roof form extending up and out opens views of surrounding ridgelines so prevalent on the Central coast and on this Bridge Street site in particular. It accentuates the notion of the indoor/outdoor relationship desirable in our climate, and it invites one to enter into the core of its interior, not to mention inviting in the welcome winter sun.

The design team observed the solar shadow from the surrounding hills on the Winter Solstice (21 December), the shortest day of the year. All of the potential house sites were in full sun until 3:00 pm; no residence blocks the winter sun of its neighbor until that time.

The project will be built using "Healthy House" materials: those that are nontoxic, with little or no out-gassing and that are not destructive to the environment in their manufacture. Compromises may have to be made to ensure the affordability of the project overall. For example, we will only use sustainably harvested bamboo flooring on the second floor. The first floor finish will remain as exposed fly ash concrete for thermal mass. Thermal mass walls retain passive solar gain on the interior. Straw bale walls may be replaced with environmentally friendly "Structural Insulated Panels" (SIPS). These panels have smooth, strong exterior surfaces of formaldehyde-free oriented strand board adhered to a nontoxic expanded polystyrene core. The oriented strand board is produced from a regenerable wood skin make up of second-growth timber, typically 10-year-old poplar and aspen, rather than old-growth lumber. Structural insulated panels are lightweight, strong and easy to assemble. The structural shell uses up to 60% less lumber and takes a third less labor to construct than a traditional stick-framed structure. The SIP is-energy efficient with an R-value of 40, can be recycled and is free of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and formaldehydes, with minimal air penetration and thermal bridging problems.

V. Conclusion

In conclusion, M:OME/BSN intends to demonstrate that it is possible to build a community of houses that sets a higher standard than past convention. If we can send humans into space to live, then surely we can live in more technologically progressive houses, which take advantage of scientific advances ready and available on the market. Surely, we can also learn from the past, from indigenous vernacular structures that respond naturally and positively to their climate. The team also wants to show that it is possible to build houses that are "affordable," whereby the selling price is determined not by what the market will bear, but by the cost to design and build the structures. Going further, the project wants to exhibit that measures can be put in place to ensure modest gains in equity for the owners while preserving the affordability over the long haul.

The development process is long and complex, with many hurdles to leap over and many hoops to jump through, but it is the intention of the team to create a community where people are enthusiastic to live.

The M:OME/BSN team would like to set a precedent and inspire the establishment of similar communities throughout our region. A group of people can come together, buy a piece land, hire an architect to guide them through the design, permits, codes and variances, and create their own version of a micro-neighborhood. Hopefully, the Bridge Street Neighborhood will provide a model for this type of community.

M:OME is a design and research studio dedicated to bringing innovative, modernist, and sustainable homes to a wider audience. Architects Laura Joines-Novotny and Tom Di Santo develop repeatable climate responsive designs to address crucial issues of housing and the environment simultaneously while creating in a form that expresses our collective moment in history, the 21st century. Both Joines-Novotny and Di Santo are professors in the Architecture Department at Cal Poly. Go to www.mome.org for more information.