A thoughtful redesign makes the heart of this home brighter, healthier, and more functional

After 10 years of working around the shortcomings of this 1950s kitchen, the owners felt it was time to change the room to meet their needs. Ginger, the cook of the family, was mostly concerned with function, but her architect husband, David, had additional plans for the space. Of course aesthetics were important to him, but David had a growing interest in and understanding of sustainable design and put these principles at the core of the project.

Working with existing space
One of David's biggest concerns was how to get better work flow in the kitchen and a casual place to eat without building an addition. Fortunately, an adjacent carport (which had already served as a place for warm-weather dining) offered plenty of room to expand under its existing roof. A few walls were built and doors rearranged to create a fluid path from an adjacent dining room, through the kitchen, into the carport-cum-breakfast room, and out to the backyard. To replace the family's barbecue space displaced by the breakfast nook, David built an FSCNonprofit organization that promotes forestry practices that are sustainable from environmental and social standpoints; FSC certification on a wood product is an indicator that the wood came from a well-managed forest.-certified ipé deck off the new back door.

More natural light
The old kitchen was cramped and dark—both characteristics that Ginger was anxious to change. Years of experience in this kitchen had helped her understand exactly how she worked when she cooked, which played a big role in deciding the new layout. David and Ginger felt that, with three kids in the house, an open space without an island made the most sense. To bring in plenty of natural daylight, they wrapped the back of the kitchen and two sides of the breakfast room with windows.

With the kitchen gutted and the walls opened up, the renovation offered a great opportunity to make the room more energy-efficient. ArgonInert (chemically stable) gas, which, because of its low thermal conductivity, is often used as gas fill between the panes of energy-efficient windows. -filled, double-pane windows were the obvious choice. Because the new windows were not well sheltered from direct sunlight, David went with low-eLow-emissivity coating. Very thin metallic coating on glass or plastic window glazing that permits most of the sun’s short-wave (light) radiation to enter, while blocking up to 90% of the long-wave (heat) radiation. Low-e coatings boost a window’s R-value and reduce its U-factor., low-solar-gain glazingWhen referring to windows or doors, the transparent or translucent layer that transmits light. High-performance glazing may include multiple layers of glass or plastic, low-e coatings, and low-conductivity gas fill.. Before closing everything up, he filled the old and new walls with cotton batt insulationInsulation, usually of fiberglass or mineral wool and often faced with paper, typically installed between studs in walls and between joists in ceiling cavities. Correct installation is crucial to performance. and even added blown-in cellulose to the entire attic.

A challenging materials list
This renovation occurred in 2002, which wasn't that long ago, but green products just weren't as available as they are today. David spent hours on the phone just trying to track down the FSCForest Stewardship Council. An independent, nonprofit organization that promotes responsible forest management through the use of a third-party certification process. FSC certification includes a chain-of-custody requirement that tracks sustainability of wood products from growth to end use.-certified ipé. He wanted to use fluorescent lighting, but the cold hue and buzzing ballasts convinced him to switch to halogens.

Some choices weren't as difficult. The custom cabinets are built with wheatboard—a formaldehydeChemical found in many building products; most binders used for manufactured wood products are formaldehyde compounds. Reclassified by the United Nations International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2004 as a “known human carcinogen."-free particleboard made of wheat straw, an agricultural waste product. They also contain wood, but there's about 60% less than in a conventional cabinet. The cotton and cellulose insulationThermal insulation made from recycled newspaper or other wastepaper; often treated with borates for fire and insect protection. contain 85% recycled, renewable materials. The linoleum floor tiles are mostly cellulose and linseed oil—very durable and easy to care for. Countertops are Fireslate— a cement-based material that has a lower embodied energyEnergy that goes into making a product; includes energy required for growth, extraction, and transportation of the raw material as well as manufacture, packaging, and transportation of the finished product. Embodied energy is often used to measure ecological cost. than the stone it replaces.

Lessons Learned

This project came near the beginning of David's experience in green building. In retrospect, he would have focused more attention on the envelope and energy-efficiency details, even though this was essentially just an interior renovation. In fact, he's currently working out the details of a possible full-house superinsulation retrofit.