ABC Green Homes 3.0 to Break Ground this Fall

Construction of the newest installment to the ABC Green Homes series is planned for this fall

By Jessica Burger

The new ABC Green Homes 3.0 (Affordable, Buildable, Certifiable) will be a breath of fresh air, literally. The highly sustainable, multigenerational homes are being designed by Danielian Associates Architecture + Planning, and will embrace the latest green elements and technologies to create very special and healthy places for wounded veterans and their families to live.

As a collaboration with Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and all of us here at Peninsula Publishing, the distinctively-styled, two-story home will be located on an infill lot at the southwest corner of West Truslow and South Highland avenues in Fullerton, Calif. This will be the third project to be built as part of the ABC Green Home series under Nick Slevin, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for Peninsula Publishing and Builder and Developer.

The first ABC Green Home was built and exhibited at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif. during the 2013 Solar Decathlon. The ABC Green Home 2.0 is currently under construction in Walnut, Calif.

These homes will be built to zero net energy standards, and will be a showcase of some of today’s most modern sustainable homebuilding elements. Designed from the ground up to optimize advanced sustainability and energy-efficient components, the four-bedroom ABC Green Homes 3.0 feature universal livability that will embrace the positive elements of nature such as capturing and utilizing gentle breezes to cool and constantly freshen the home’s interior.

“When designing a sustainable home, or any structure, nature provides architects with an abundance of elements that can improve the home’s livability such as enhancing interior air quality while at the same time reducing energy use,” explains John Danielian, AIA, LEED AP, principal of Danielian Associates. “Our design of these very special homes will, among other livable features, optimize the capture and circulation of air to naturally cool the interior, and ensure that the air quality is healthy.”

Another green design feature of the ABC Green Homes 3.0—one of many— is in response to today’s campaign to reduce water waste and consumption. It is a simple but creative “rain gutter” that collects and directs rain to a receptacle on the ground that holds the “gray water” until used to irrigate the drought resistant landscape when necessary.

The homes with two-car garages feature sharply angled roof lines that create dynamic curb appeal as well as shade overhangs to block the sun rays from invading the home’s interior, reducing the solar heat affect.

The south-facing roof areas will be the perfect location for the solar panels that will add to the home’s sustainable footprint by generating power to reduce the electric bill and help mitigate greenhouse gas, an ingredient in global warming.

Designed as much for outdoor living as indoor, the homes have an abundance of window area for maximum natural light and cross ventilation and a large, private patio area directly off the great room for family gatherings and barbecues.

A “deck garden” on the second floor connects to the upstairs family room, providing a greater sense of airiness and openness.

As a true multigenerational home, the main ABC Green Home 3.0 unit includes on the ground floor a completely separate one-bedroom “multi-gen suite” of 431 square feet with a comfortable living room, kitchenette, full bath, washer/dryer, and will have its own exterior patio and outside entrance for ultimate privacy. Lead Danielian designers Louis Bretana and Joe Digrado, AIA, call it a home within a home. The apartment can be home to a veteran living with his family or the caregiver for a veteran.

Both Danielian and Habitat for Humanity have experience building homes for veterans. Danielian, which is providing its design services for the ABC Green Home 3.0 pro bono, is also involved in designing the 300+ unit March Veterans’ Village near the March Air Force Base in Riverside County.

Habitat for Humanity designed and built a neighborhood of 27 for-sale homes in San Juan Capistrano for veterans and their families with an emphasis on housing wounded veterans. The veteran who will live in ABC Green Home 3.0 will be selected by working closely with representatives of the Armed Forces.

“We are pleased to partner with the entire development team to design and build what we believe will not only be an eco-friendly home, but a veteran-friendly home,” said Danielian. “For us as architects, this gives us an opportunity to incorporate some of our ideas such as the multi-gen suite as well as Net-Zero energy efficiency concepts that we are perfecting for the larger homebuilding industry. A key part of our business philosophy is to help the community by doing good and so this is a collaboration that we greatly value.”

Ultimately, the main ABC Green Home 3.0 unit will be joined by two other Habitat for Humanity single-family detached homes on the same site to create a residential enclave that will become a sustainability showplace as well as provide badly needed workforce housing to the community.

Jessica Burger is the Editor for Green Home Builder magazine. She may be reached at jessica@penpubinc.com.

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