Check out the blurb below from the Ecovative team on this new project:

www.mushroomtinyhouse.com

The Ecovative team is not just building a tiny house, they’re literally growing it. That’s right, the walls are made of a material called Mushroom® Insulation, and they’re alive. This is a test of some of Ecovative’s most radical building concepts.

Ecovative uses mycelium (mushroom “roots”) to bond together agricultural byproducts like corn stalks into a material that can replace plastic foam. They’ve been selling it for a few years as protective packaging, helping big companies replace thousands of Styrofoam (EPS), EPE and other plastic foam packaging parts. Ecovative is now working to develop new products for building materials. This is an exciting, radical and innovative approach to try a bunch of ideas, learn a lot, and grow something really awesome.

Here’s how it works. Mushroom Insulation grows into wood forms over the course of a few days, forming an airtight seal. It dries over the next month (kind of like how concrete cures) and you are left with an airtight wall that is extremely strong. Best yet, it saves on material costs, as you don’t need any studs in the wall, and it gives you great thermal performance since it’s one continuous insulated wall assembly. The finished Mushroom® Insulation is also fire resistant and very environmentally friendly.

Will it work? Will it hold up to the weather? Will it avoid any pest problems? All of Ecovative’s early testing says yes. But there’s no better way to know for sure than to build a house and try it out. Check out their site and stay tuned!

DIY Dads

Need some simple gifts to make with your little ones? Try these:

• Cardboard photo cubes (tutorial by Tara Dennis)
• Decorated votive candles (tutorial by Parents.com)
• Home state wall-art (great one for detail-oriented older kids – tutorial from The Harpster Home)

Don’t Call the Florist – You Got This!

Check out these great flower-inspired ideas.

• Living succulent wreath (Isn’t this gorgeous? Check out Succulent and Sunshine‘s great tutorial and make your own before Sunday.)

• Seed kits (For moms with a green thumb – check out these options from Urban Farmer or go to a garden store and make your own!)
• Paper flowers (Bloom all year round! Check out Curbly’s tutorial.)

Green Gifts That Give Back – No Shipping Required

Need a present for Mom but you’re miles apart? Check out Make It Right’s Green Gifts. You can give plants for a community garden, playground equipment, a gallon of paint, historic restoration and more in your Mom’s name. We’ll email her a cheerful card detailing your gift with a special message from you. Happy Mothers’ Day to all our moms!

High End Style on a Budget
by Patricia Davis Brown

Living on a budget, like so many of us are doing these days, usually means we have let go of our decorating dreams. But, some of the hottest trends in design right now are all about rustic, restored and vintage looks that are cheap! This means you can get a high end look on a low end budget.

Here are some of the stylish trends we’ve picked up on Pinterest that you can emulate in your design – without breaking the bank:

Eclectic Collections

Start a collection of vintage items – like the serving trays featured below – and turn them into an evolving art piece on your wall as you add more and more. Each time you pass a garage sale or head to your local flea market, grab a new item for a few cents.

See Vintage Silver Platters wall decor

Or, save up items like magazines as shown below and create the base for a new table or desk. Ask your friends for their old magazines and start piling up the catalogs in your mailbox and before you know it, you’ll have what you need to create a one-of-a-kind piece for your home.

See Magazines as a Table Base

Thrift Store Treasures

Do you have an eye for potential beauty? Then, head to the thrift store and use that talented eye to spot furniture that has the shape and function you’re looking for – but just not the color or finish. Take it home and re-paint it, stain it a new color or apply a finish like you see in spray painted (yeah… really… spray painted!) dresser below.

See Chest of Drawers with Metallic Spray Paint

Upcyclying Trash

Before you throw out a broken item, think about how the “bones” that are left can be repurposed. The chair-turned-bath-rack below is a great example. Chopping off the broken legs, giving it a fresh coat of paint and hanging it upside down above the comode added style and extra storage to this bathroom.

See Chair Back Bathroom Rack

Get Creative

My favorite part of this upcycling trend is that it really allows each person to let their own creativity shine. What one person sees as a bunch of useless old bowling balls, someone else may see as a whimsical garden feature. So, let that creativity fly!

See Bowling Ball Garden Art

Good Luck

Don’t let your budget stifle your design. You can bring beauty, function and style into your home with a little elbow grease and a bit of creativity!

– Patricia Davis Brown, National Award Winning Interior Designer
Design Blog: http://DigThisDesign.net

AFTER:

Make It Right has partnered with the Cradle to Cradle Innovation Institute in announcing a competition to inspire product innovation. The $250,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to companies that are working on viable products in the realm of affordable building and construction products that are safe for human and environmental health.

To learn more, read the announcement from the Cradle to Cradle Innovation Institute below, and go to our Laboratory page on Cradle to Cradle to read FAQs relating to the challenge.

Design Challenge: Prize offers $250, 000 to Spur Product Innovation

We’re looking to the manufacturing and design community to help make high-quality, healthy homes available for everyone.

To help inspire innovation in developing healthy building materials for communities in need, the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute and Make It Right is issuing a Product Innovation Challenge. We’re encouraging manufacturers to design goods for the affordable housing market that are safe for human and environmental health and designed for re-use. And, we are offering $250,000 in prize money for the most innovative solutions, to be announced at Greenbuild 2013.

Here’s the problem: many commonly used building materials contain chemicals that have been linked to cancer, respiratory problems, hormone interference, reproductive and developmental harm. In fact, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that nearly 80,000 chemicals are used in the country today, many of which are unstudied and largely unregulated.

Consumer awareness is increasing and demand for healthier products is growing but often these options are not available for affordable housing and as a result, already economically disadvantaged populations find themselves at a health disadvantage as well.

A recent initiative led by Make It Right (founded by Brad Pitt in 2007), builds healthy homes, buildings and communities for people in need. All Make It Right projects are LEED Platinum certified and Cradle to Cradle inspired—meeting the highest standards of green building.

Because Cradle to Cradle principles are fundamental to Make It Right’s design process, building methods and product selection they select Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM products whenever possible – but there aren’t enough Certified products to build an affordable house.

Enter the Product Innovation Challenge. The Challenge asks innovators to rethink common materials— such as PVC —and come up with revolutionary new products that can exceed their standards on the basis of price, performance, availability, and human and environmental health.

In addition to the $250,000 prize money, contest winners will receive extras including the support of a Dwell media partnership and special announcement at a special event at Greenbuild 2013. Up to 20 runners-up will receive distinction at the event and benefit from a marketing/PR campaign supporting their work.

The application process is rigorous and submissions are due June 30, 2013—start now—sign up for updates and additional resources or register for a live webinar to learn more:

February 19, 12:00 pm eastern / 9:00 am pacific
March 8, 3:00 pm eastern / 12:00 pm pacific
Additional dates will be added—please check the website for registration.

Click here for contest details and official rules.

I was disappointed to read Lydia Depillis’ mischaracterizations of Make It Right’s work and the Lower 9th Ward in her article, “If You Rebuild It, They Might Not Come” on The New Republic’s website.

A few points the author got right: Make It Right could build conventional homes with fewer green features for less money in the Lower 9th Ward. By spending less money on each house, we could build more houses. Building in an area of the city that was less devastated would be easier.

What the author seems to miss is that we deliberately set out to help New Orleans’ homeowners who were struggling the most to rebuild, even though we knew it would be challenging and expensive. While the academic debate about the fate of the Lower 9th Ward raged, families were already returning to the neighborhood, living in toxic FEMA trailers and planning to rebuild. These homeowners had decided to come home, but lacked the resources to rebuild in a way that would be safe and sustainable. Make It Right decided not to try to build as many houses as possible, but to design and build the best houses possible for this community.

Like all areas vulnerable to flooding, building in the Lower 9th Ward carries risks that need to be considered. Some people believe that rebuilding anywhere in New Orleans is futile given climate change, sea level rise and the increasing frequency and intensity of storms. We believe that New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward can be rebuilt better and safer.

Part of Make It Right’s challenge is to design resilient homes that reduce the risk of flooding and damage from storms. Combined with the strengthened levee system that offers better protection for the Lower 9th Ward, the storm-resistant features on Make It Right’s homes help mitigate the threat of future storm damage. Homeowners face less risk now than prior to Katrina. Since we began building in 2008, our homes have weathered two hurricanes with only minor damage to a few houses.

The article also implies the design of our homes is out of context in New Orleans, an uneducated position at best. More than 30 distinct architectural styles make up what is typically considered traditional New Orleans design; all were considered modern at some point. Our founder invited some of the most creative minds in modern architecture to design our homes, from firms right here in New Orleans to Ghana, Japan and Chile. These architects volunteered their time and expertise, many spending years collaborating with homeowners on their designs.

Furthermore, in the area where we work, pre-Katrina homes were not the classic Creole cottages often associated with New Orleans. They were post-World War II, slab-on-grade, ranch-style houses that could not withstand high winds or storm surge. We are not replacing historic New Orleans houses with modern design; we do not claim our designs should be built in architecturally historic neighborhoods or anywhere outside of their original design context.

Like Ms. Guy, whom the author interviewed, each homeowner chooses their home design. We have found that homeowners love the designs they choose and we have not received requests for a house design that mimics the traditional style. By the way, regarding Ms. Guy’s home: both the author’s original text stating that the home has three bedrooms and the correction stating the home has two bedrooms are wrong. Ms. Guy’s home has four bedrooms.

To build the best possible homes, Make It Right also incorporates new building technologies. Typically these are not, as the author claims, experimental. We use new materials available off-the-shelf at local retailers. By using new technology in our homes, we can often improve quality and reduce cost. In rare instances, we are not satisfied with the performance of a particular product or material. When that happens, our commitment to the homeowner is to fix what is wrong and share that information with the building community. We believe our approach drives innovation and that requires reasonable trial and error.

Our work is helping drive breakthroughs in green building and is recognized by many in the industry. What we are learning not only helps lower the cost of our houses, but makes green building more accessible and affordable for others. Builders in New Orleans and around the country have thanked us for being willing to absorb upfront costs associated with making green building practices more ubiquitous.

Make It Right set a goal – not a promise as the author claims – to build at least 150 houses. If we can build more and if our work catalyzes additional rebuilding, commercial services and new infrastructure, all the better as far as we are concerned. Indeed, the City of New Orleans responded to the density we helped develop in a 20-block area by installing new streets, after we built the homes. The new streets are made in part of pervious concrete that reduces runoff by absorbing water. The city should be applauded for developing some of the most innovative infrastructure in the country, not chastised for it.

Many retail services are not available in the Lower 9th Ward yet, but our work is not finished. Our mission is to rebuild communities, not just houses. Commercial services will return to the Lower 9th Ward or we will build them ourselves. The author points out the lack of grocery stores and public services, then argues that the city should invest resources elsewhere, which makes no sense to us. The full impact of investments made by the city, private businesses and nonprofits will not be evident until commitments are made. Last week, the city announced plans for a new fire station and a rebuilt community center, just blocks from the Make It Right houses. Clearly we aren’t the only ones who believe significant investments such as ours will help ensure the long-term recovery of the community.

The author writes that, “In a wrenching deviation from its original mission, the non-profit has decided to open up to buyers who didn’t live in the neighborhood before Katrina.” Again, this is simply not true. To be exact, we have opened our program to 15 police officers, firefighters, EMTs and teachers, based on eligibility requirements of a HUD program. We did this in response to requests from existing homeowners who want to welcome new residents to their neighborhood.

Another fundamental inaccuracy in the article relates to the cost of our homes. To date, we have spent about $24 million on the construction of 90 homes in New Orleans, not $45 million as the author claims, and our organization does much more than build houses. We provide homeownership and financial counseling services to hundreds of people in need, offer affordable mortgages, build and maintain green spaces, parks and playgrounds throughout the neighborhood, install solar systems on hundreds of houses built by other nonprofits and help raise the green building performance of local builders and other nonprofits by sharing lessons learned (including with the organizations the author quotes in her article).

We also are sharing what we have learned by taking on additional projects for communities in need around the country, like Newark, NJ and Kansas City, MO. We raise money for those new endeavors separately from the Lower 9th Ward project. While we use a portion of that funding to help cover our operating costs, the new projects do not pay for costs in New Orleans as the author claims.

We welcome comparisons to other builders in New Orleans, but those comparisons should be fair. As noted above, the author’s estimated cost per unit for Make It Right’s homes was completely wrong. The author uses the inaccurate estimate of the cost of a Make It Right house and compares it to Providence Housing, an older, larger-scale developer that also builds multi-family apartment buildings and Lowernine.org, a non-profit that fixes up houses with volunteer labor. The services those groups provide are important — we believe everyone working to rebuild New Orleans is in it together. But the author states that Providence Housing “has built about 1,800 homes and apartments at roughly one-third Make It Right’s per-unit cost.” Comparing a multi-family development project to our work is uneducated and unfair and the author’s claim of “roughly one-third” per unit cost is, again, woefully inaccurate. Comparing only Providence’s single-family units to Make It Right’s homes would be more accurate, and our homes still would have slightly higher construction costs. Of course, our higher upfront costs also result in thousands of dollars of energy savings for our homeowners every year, an approach widely recognized as one of many benefits of green building.

We understand how tempting it is to take shots at an organization with a high-profile founder. However, we were truly surprised that a magazine with The New Republic’s reputation would stoop to shoddy journalism and smear tactics. We welcome any genuine criticism and open discussion – we’ve even built a platform on our website to share our lessons learned and encourage feedback – anyone can join here. But the sort of malignant distortions that the author presents in this piece distract us from our mission, dishearten hard-working staff and negatively impact people who have already suffered too much.

Tom Darden
Executive Director
Make It Right

Make It Right’s team has been meeting with Fort Peck leaders in Montana over the last few months and we are excited to be working with the tribal leaders to develop the Sustainable Elders Village on their reservation.

When working with a new community like the Fort Peck Reservation, Make It Right engages the community in a collaborative design process. We believe that the most creative design solutions are the result of an open exchange of ideas involving all project stakeholders from the outset. 

The Fort Peck Reservation has a clear vision for the Sustainable Elder’s Village. Here are the baseline design principles that emerged from our early discussions with them:

1. Design buildings powered by the sun, wind, rivers and earth. Off the grid.

2. Define a community engagement process that encourages native to native economic development.

3. Explore contemporary Native American Architectural Design principles.

4.  Design and build a carbon neutral, mixed-use development for tribal elders and residents.

5. Engage the local community in a extensive design process.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of this exciting new project!

Meet Lynsey Johnson, a Loyola law student who recently joined the Make It Right team as a legal intern. She’s an avid long distance runner, active in the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and a member of the Junior League of New Orleans. She also has one of the world’s cutest puppies.*

Lynsey is originally from northern Wisconsin, where she graduated from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, with a Bachelor’s of Science in public administration and political science. She went on to earn her Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Northern Illinois University. Following that, she worked for the City of DeKalb, Illinois as a transportation planner from 2006-2007. After moving to Madison, Wisconsin, she served as the disaster response and recovery planner for Wisconsin Emergency Management from 2007-2011. While there, Lynsey participated in disaster operations and administered the disaster assistance programs; specifically, the Wisconsin floods of 2008 and 2010. She also administered the FEMA hazard mitigation grant programs, reviewed local hazard mitigation plans and provided technical assistance to Wisconsin counties. Rounding out her professional achievements, Lynsey also served as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) Liaison for the State of Wisconsin coordinating state-to-state mutual aid and earned her Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) designation through the ASFPM.

In 2011, she followed her lifelong dream of going to law school and becoming an attorney. She moved to New Orleans and is currently a second year law student at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. After law school, she hopes to continue disaster recovery work.

* See, told you:

Here are the gingerbread homes our team built, including an EDR-inspired gingerbread home (on the left) that mirrors a design we build in our neighborhood in the Lower 9th Ward! We were thrilled to win for Best Technical Design.

A photo of our design and build team post-victory (and after consuming a lot of icing!):

Check out a few more photos in The Advocate.

First up, we’re having a volunteer day this Friday, November 30 from 1-4pm. Come help us landscape a playground and tidy up community spaces just in time for Christmas. Get details and sign up here.

Next up on Thursday, December 6 from 6-9pm, we’re joining other local non-profit builders for a Gingerbread House Building Competition. Bring your family, friends and neighbors to this adorable event. Proceeds from ticket sales go to help build more affordable homes in New Orleans. We’ll provide the building materials, music and refreshments – you bring your creativity! Prizes (and bragging rights!) for the best gingerbread houses. Get your ticket here.

Wherever you are, you can get into the spirit of the season and Give a Healthy Home for the Holidays. We’ve got green gifts for everyone on your list – from lightbulbs to toilets, community gardens to gallons of paint. Check out all the gifts and start shopping today!