Bill and Mary Griffith have converted their modestly sized weeHouse into a off-grid oasis. With the addition of a fully functioning PV array this summer, Bill reports, "we are sending power back into the grid! It's pretty cool to watch." Think of it as a power station for the neighborhood. By sending power back into the grid you're actually helping to power your neighbor's house with sustainable energy.
Although the Moab weeHouse is planned to be a weeZero in the future, this is, for the record, Alchemy's first Net Zero weeHouse. And wee is thanking entrepreneurial and incredibly good-earth-minded clients for that. It's a perfect example of 'phasing in' your dream weeHouse. (The weeHouse was 'set' in Fall 2008.) The house is located near Albany, NY, so look-out-mother-nature ... wee'll be taking you on as you dish lots of snow and cold weather. In the winter months, the Griffith's enjoy warm floors from the in-floor heat system powered by a solar hot water collector on the roof, and when the sun's not shining they use an efficient wood burning fireplace to stay cozy.
With 2+ dozen or so weeHouses built to date, all of our clients are "early adopters" on the sociology scale, but when you're also a pioneer in creating 'the first' ... it's even more darn special. wee hopes you enjoy a very, very long sustainable, low impact lifestyle in high style. For more information about Net Zero weeHouses see www.weehouse.com.
MASTER/Plan: Visionary Architects and Their Utopian Worlds
weeHouse by Alchemy is pleased to be featured in MASTER/Plan, an exhibit held at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum on the campus of Rollins College, Orlando, FL. The exhibit also features ARTifacts by Geoffrey Warner. Warner will be attending the Opening (members and public) so please do come by if you're in the area.
Warner's "10 weeHouses" (with a nod to Andy Warhol's "10 Marilyns") will be on display as a print, and also as a sculpture representative of the architectural process. The original print created with Shayne Schuldt, gives blatant reference to Andy Warhol's "10 Marilyns" and extends the idea that buildings, typically thought of as commodities, can be elevated to being works of art given the right context—even if being built using mass production methods.
The 10 weeHouses sculpture features model-size weeHouses hand crafted from a variety of repurposed and new materials including: ash branches, pallet wood, acrylic, hot rolled steel, and water-jet cut aluminum. Scott McGlasson of Woodsport (www.woodsport.net) hand crafted some of the weeHouses, contributing his skilled woodworker's finishing detail. Warner worked with other local manufacturers on the speciality cuts to the acrylic and steel. (FYI: McGlasson & Woodsport are featured in many of Alchemy's award-winning projects including the Hopkins Baumann Loft, The NoLo Loft, and his very own Northwoods weeHouse.)
There is also a hands-on area for weeHouse admirers. Alchemy, along with Beka (award-winning toy makers in our hometown of St. Paul), created sets of wood and steel blocks that represent (to scale) weeHouse modules. Attendees will be able to build their own weeHouse world, and wee hopes, address development planning with an eye to the well designed future.
Scott Ervin, Betsy Gabler, and Geoffrey Warner also created a "Genuine weeHouse KIT" that is for sale in the museum shop. This series of numbered and signed weeWorld KITS let you bring home a bit of art—not quite 'mass produced' but we certainly all lined up in an assembly line to put the pieces together! Open up the repurposed military issue canteen and find weeHouse blocks, sandpapers, discs, springs, and other found objects that let you create a weeWorld where blocks are buildings, sandpapers are beaches, driveways, or alien landing pads, and springs become trees, bike stations, or playground equipment.
Thanks so much to the curatorial team for the invitation and our colleagues for their contributions as well. We're honored.
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Museum Information:
Sustainable architecture, urban planning, and utopia are explored in an exhibition of models, drawings, and animations by six leading contemporary architects (Paolo Soleri, Adrien Smith, Michael Graves, Morris Adjmi, Alchemy Architects, and Chad Oppenheim). This exhibition sheds light on the creative and practical processes involved with community planning today. Visitors will be able to design their own utopian city.
Museum Admission: Admission is $5.00 for the public and free to CFAM members, NARM reciprocal members, children, Rollins College faculty, staff, and other college students with a valid ID
Museum Contact Information: Cornell Fine Arts Museum, 1000 Holt Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789-4499, 407.646.2526 (p), Tuesday - Friday: 10 AM - 4 PM, Saturday - Sunday: 12 - 5 PM, Closed Mondays
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