More Related Content Similar to Nh Booklet062709 Similar to Nh Booklet062709 (20) 2. Who We Are
NATURA HOME is a company based in New York and Costa Rica that designs and produces sustainable, prefabricated, modular homes and
furnishings for tropical climates. We offer “turn-key” products to individuals and developers, managing the whole process from design
through construction.
NATURA HOME reinvests a portion of profits in sustainable housing, agriculture, and jobs in low-income communities in Costa Rica.
ADVANTAGES AND SERVICES
• Homes are prefabricated in our 7,000-square-foot facility in Costa Rica by expert workers. This reduces construction time and
stress compared to non-prefab construction—with superb quality.
• Depending on site conditions, constructing a typical three-bedroom home will take significantly less time than a standard
custom-built home.
• Cost savings due to:
• Efficient fabrication means less labor.
• Post-and-beam design eliminates extensive site work.
• Volume purchasing.
• Weather-controlled facility reduces damage to and loss of materials.
• We use sustainably grown or sourced timber (e.g., salvaged, reclaimed, FSC-certified). When possible, we use timber from Costa
Rica, which cuts shipping-and-handling costs dramatically and further lowers our carbon footprint.
• We favor traditional mortis-tenon joinery techniques, eliminating non-essential steel fasteners and their attendant costs—
financial and environmental—for manufacturing, water-jet cutting, welding, galvanizing, parts, and transport.
Additional Options
• Custom floor plans available.
• We partner with several sustainability pioneers—John Todd Ecological Design and Bill Reed, among others—to provide
sustainable systems and services appropriate to your location.
These include:
• Solar photovoltaic or micro-hydro turbines for energy generation
• Solar hot-water systems
• Constructed wetlands for wastewater management
• Organic polyculture farming for food production
• Upgraded fixture package.
• Upgraded appliance package.
• Custom furniture and cabinetry.
• Pool, spa, exterior water features.
Confidential and Proprietary
2
©All Rights Reserved
4. Material Procurement and Analysis
NATURA HOME analyzes all materials to minimize the total energy required for the end product. The analysis includes harvesting,
processing, and transporting of the materials, as well as installation and construction. The average embodied energy of a newly
constructed conventional dwelling is estimated to be 5 GJ/m2. The average floor area of a dwelling is around 223 m2, putting the embodied
energy of a single-family dwelling at approximately 1,115 GJ.1 In contrast, Natura homes contain approximately 0.32 GJ/m2 of embodied
energy. By these estimates, a Natura home will consume just 6.3% of the embodied energy of a traditional building of the same size. This
efficiency results from careful selection of low-embodied-energy materials such as air-dried hardwoods and recycled steel.
On average, 0.098 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced per gigajoule of embodied energy.2 Therefore, the average carbon footprint of
the conventional building described above is 109.27 metric tons of CO2. By contrast, the carbon footprint of a Natura home of equal size will
be 18.6 metric tons of CO2—83% smaller. This is largely due to the selection of materials and the synergistic phenomenon of sustainably
harvested wood acting as a carbon sink. This benefit offsets the emissions associated with harvesting and transporting the materials.
All materials and processes are non-toxic and either biodegradable, recyclable, or reusable after the useful life of the building or systems.
Externalities (an environmental accounting that measures negative outputs associated with materials and systems) are minimized, from
extraction through installation and eventual reprocessing. In addition, major structural components are designed to yield a service life of
more than 100 years.
The use of hardwoods that are naturally pest- and rot-resistant, combined with the use of natural sealants, eliminates the externalities
associated with traditional finishes, which typically account for 13% of the total initial embodied energy of a structure. Traditional finishes
also cause the highest increase in recurring embodied energy3 and account for a large percentage of the environmental pollutants
produced by a building.
1 Csiro Materials Science & Engineering. Sustainable Built Environment. Embodied Energy.
<http://www.cmmt.csiro.au/brochures/tech/embodied/index.cfm>
2 Csiro Materials Science & Engineering. Sustainable Built Environment. Embodied Energy.
<http://www.cmmt.csiro.au/brochures/tech/embodied/index.cfm>
3 Canadian Architect. Measures of Sustainability. Embodied Energy. 1996 to 1997.
<http://www.canadianarchitect.com/asf/perspectives_sustainibility/measures_of_sustainablity/measures_of_sustainablity_embodied.htm>
Confidential and Proprietary
4
©All Rights Reserved
6. Wood
Homes are made out of FSC-certified tropical hardwoods. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a nongovernmental, non-profit organization that promotes the responsible
management of the world’s forests.
Established in 1993 as a response to concerns over global deforestation, FSC is widely regarded as one of the most important initiatives of the last decade to promote responsible forest
management worldwide.
FSC provides internationally recognized standard setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services for companies, organizations and communities interested in responsible
forestry. It is a membership organization with a governance structure based on participation, democracy, equity, and transparency.
The FSC logo and on-product labels have become the globally trusted mark for businesses and consumers looking for forest products that benefit people, the environment and that also
provide ongoing business value.
The FSC solution
FSC uses certification to engage the market, driving recognition of the value of forests to improve social and
environmental standards in forest management practices worldwide.
Forests provide us with clean water, fresh air and they even help combat global warming. They also provide food,
medicine and important natural resources such as timber. If managed responsibly, forests and plantations benefit the
people that depend on forests and the global community at large.
However, in some countries as much as 80% of the timber is harvested illegally, often in violation of human rights and
causing destruction of protected forests. A key factor behind the threats faced by natural forests is the perception by
many societies that they lack economic value.
The extraordinary social and ecological value of forests in comparison to other land uses is often not considered. In
other words, forests are often converted to other land uses which lack many of the social and environmental values of
forests but promise higher economic returns.
FSC does not encourage exploitation of forests, but rather promotes the equitable incorporation of social and
environmental considerations when this does happen.
How FSC makes a difference in the forest
To earn FSC certification and the right to use the FSC label, an organization must first adapt its management and operations to conform to all applicable FSC requirements. Managing
forests the FSC way means following the highest social and environmental criteria.
This is how FSC has a direct and permanent positive impact on the world’s forests and the people living from, in and around the forest. FSC has defined ten principles that describe
how forests have to be managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations. FSC’s standards are the highest social and
environmental requirements in the forestry sector, and they have been proven to work across continents, forest types, sizes and ownership.
Confidential and Proprietary
6
©All Rights Reserved
7. FSC principles
1. Compliance with laws and FSC principles
2. Tenure and use rights and responsibilities
3. Indigenous people’s rights
4. Community relations and worker’s rights
5. Multiple benefits from the forest
6. Assessment of environmental impact
7. Management planning
8. Monitoring and assessment of management impact
9. Maintenance of high conservation value forests
10. Responsible management of plantations
Forest after conventional logging practices Forest after FSC logging practices
For further information, please visit: www.fsc.org
Species
All wood species have been selected with the aid of foresters and wood technologists with extensive training and experience in tropical hardwoods. Species have been chosen for
strength, beauty, and natural durability to rot, fungus, and termites. Furthermore, Natura Home’s innovative sourcing approach enables us to select lesser-known species and cut out
middlemen to save money while ensuring quality.
Our FSC consulting adviser is Robert Simeone, a forester with 30 years of international experience in sustainable management of natural forests. He has specialized expertise in natural
forest management in tropical and temperate America, tropical wood dendrology, and marketing of certified forest products. Over the past two decades, he has been actively engaged
in defining global sustainable forestry and wood certification issues and is widely published on the subject. A founder of the Forest Stewardship Council, he has participated as lead
consultant on numerous FSC-certification assessments in tropical and temperate America.
Confidential and Proprietary
7
©All Rights Reserved
8. Design
Sustainability is more than simply using recycled materials. Natura Home achieves true, comprehensive sustainability through resource-
efficient land planning, construction, operation, and maintenance. Our philosophy focuses on five key areas: site development, materials
selection, energy efficiency, water savings, and indoor environmental quality.
Natura Home is committed to providing some of the highest standards on the market, such as:
• Optimizing designs to use more effective spaces
and to use materials more efficiently.
• Using materials that are resource-efficient and
have low environmental impact.
• Designing and building energy-efficient
homes.
• Designing water-efficient homes and
landscapes.
• Providing a safe and comfortable indoor
environment.
• Designing for durability and adaptability.
• Promoting neighborhoods that foster a sense of
community and reduce dependence on cars.
• Preserving or restoring local ecosystems and
biodiversity.
Confidential and Proprietary
8
©All Rights Reserved
9. pile to post design detail
Structure
Natura homes are simple, open-plan, versatile spaces that work. They maximize passive cooling and enable seamless indoor-outdor living.
The post-and-beam style has roots in indigenous architectures of Africa, Japan, and Polynesia.
They are designed on a modular platform to offer a wide variety of expanding and stackable floor plans. Engineered to meet Zone 4 seismic
loads (as found in California) and hurricane-force winds (as found off the coast of Florida), they can be assembled on difficult terrain, such
as hillside, sloped, marshy, sandy, or flood-prone sites. This enables you to maximize the value of such sites in an affordable way.
construction sequence diagram for a typical home.
Confidential and Proprietary
9
©All Rights Reserved
10. Steel
Slip-tenon joinery
Natura h omes are post-and-beam structures assembled with steel slip-tenon joinery cut from 1/4” steel sheets with WaterJet cutting
technology. Each set is shipped with the home flat-packed to be assembled on site.
Confidential and Proprietary
10
©All Rights Reserved
11. Bolts
All bolts are custom manufactured to meet engineers’ specifications and our aesthetic requirements.
Doors
Panel sliding door design
Our door designs match tropical climates through the use of passive building systems—including operable, natural ventilation in floors,
walls, ceilings, and roofs—that cool the home naturally, silently, and without the cost of A/C.
Confidential and Proprietary
11
©All Rights Reserved
16. 1 BEDROOM 1 STORY - Expandable
777 ft2 or 72 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
16
17. 2 BEDROOM 1 STORY
1,238 ft2 or 115 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
17
18. 2 BEDROOM 1 STORY
1,636 ft2 or 152 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
18
19. 3 BEDROOM 1 STORY - “L”
3,059 ft2 or 284 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
19
20. 2 BEDROOM 1 STORY - “L”
2,002 ft2 or 186 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
20
21. 3 BEDROOM 2 STORY
2,066 ft2 or 192 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
21
22. 3 BEDROOM 2 STORY
2,476 ft2 or 230 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
22
23. 2 BEDROOM 1 STORY - “T”
2,454 ft2 or 228 m2
* Images are for visualization purposes only. Designs can be customized to client and site specifications with expandable and stackable floor plans.
23
25. Natura Home prototypes in Achiote, Costa Rica (photos on opposite page)
Confidential and Proprietary
25
©All Rights Reserved
