My Sustainable House

Hi I am Aislinn I have completed this project for school, specifically for my science class. The purpose of this project was to learn more about biomes and how to help the environment by making your house more sustainable. I built my house out of balsa wood and I used a knife to cut out the windows. I also used model materials to represent the ocean, sand, rocks, and seaweed. We are talking about this in class because we need to understand how to help make the environment more sustainable when it comes to building houses. My house was designed to be sustainable for one specific biome. The biome I got was freshwater specifically the Cape Cod Canal.

A biome is a a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat. There are multiple biomes found on earth. Some general biomes on Earth that are often talked about are the forest, desert, marines, tundra, freshwater and grassland. I got the freshwater biome. The freshwater's precipitation levels are at about zero percent. The average temperature in the freshwater biome is 52-60 degrees. I chose to build my home in Cape Cod Massachusetts. Specifically Cape Cod Canal right on the beach. The coordinates to this location is 41. 7682 latitude and 70. 5661 longitude. The only challenges with building your house right on the beach is that its in the flood path of the ocean. To make sure your house doesn't flood you can build your house on stilts.

I first got my inspiration by looking up beach houses on google. Beach house (link included) is the inspiration for my house. After I had looked at an idea of what I wanted my house to look like I made sketches of the front and back of my house. Then I moved on to the building and designing part. I used balsa wood and other molding materials to make my house as realistic as possible.

This part is about how to build a sustainable house just like mine. First you want to sketch out what you roughly want your final product to look like. After you sketch the front and back of your house, (and sides if needed), you want to look online or around your house for materials. Once you get all of your materials, in this case balsa wood and molding materials, you should set aside four pieces of wood. You're going to want to trace the shape of two large windows out on two pieces of the wood. Those two pieces will be the sides of the house. On the front of your house you want to sketch windows and a door. After you sketch everything you're going to get a hot glue gun and take one of your side pieces of your house and a front piece of your house and hot glue them together. Then do the same for the other side. Next you're going to take two more pieces of wood and glue them to the top of the house so that you can have a roof. After you glue the roof you want to take two more pieces of wood and cut them into a triangle so that your roof is enclosed. Lastly, you want to take aluminum foil and cut it into small rectangles and then you want to hot glue those pieces of aluminum foil to the house to use as solar panels. After you complete all of those steps you are all done building.

In the sustainable house I have built there are features on the house that make it better for the environment. One feature that has a big impact on the environment is windows. You need to have a lot of windows because it will save electricity you use inside the house to power lights. When you put in a lot of windows you also save money because you are not using the electricity as much therefore the bill will cost less. The next feature that will help make your house more sustainable is solar panels. The solar panels make the house more sustainable because they help save money and how much energy you use in your house. Another thing you can do in the building process of your house is make sure it is made of durable materials. This will make your house last longer because you won't have to keep rebuilding your house which causes waste and that is not good for sustainability. This next aspect is really helpful is using your laundry water as toilet water. This is helpful because you don't always use all the laundry water and then it goes to waste. By using the laundry water you are saving all that extra water from going to waste. Something to make your food supply sustainable is to plant a garden. Putting a garden in your backyard is helpful to getting more natural food and not wasting gas going to the shop far away. When you make your house it would be helpful to put a well in. Having a well is helpful so that you know you are always guaranteed water and most of the time never have to worry about not having water. In the building stage of your house since this house is on the flood line you might want to add stilts. Stilts would boost your house and make it so your house is less likely to flood and be damaged. It would also save you money on rebuilding materials if your house were to flood. The last aspect to think about to make your house more sustainable is setting a budget before you start building. This is helpful so that you don't go and spend all your money and that you keep it in a good budget.

In conclusion I learned that there are multiple different kinds of biomes on earth. One thing I could change on my house to make it more sustainable would be to add a green house.