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So you've installed CFL bulbs in all of your light fixtures, low-flow shower heads and toilets, and use eco-friendly paint for your walls. That's pretty green, right? That's just "light green" compared to this house in Venice, CA that was renovated and is now green - literally.

As more people get turned on to sustainability and try to make more environmentally responsible choices, the usual starting point from which they begin is in their own homes. To be certain, they are varying degrees of ‘green’ homes. Some people install CFLs and call it a day, while others create 100% off-the-grid earth shelters built into the ground. Unfortunately, those attempting to further embrace sustainable ideals and lifestyles usually go ‘light green’ when it comes to their own home constructions/renovations. The bamboo floors, low flow toilets and the recycled glass countertops are nice gestures at sustainability, and can be components of a sustainable design, but in the grand scheme of things these features and fixtures by themselves do little environmentally speaking.

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The newly renovated and retrofitted Brooks Avenue house in Venice, CA is one example of a home addition where the only thing that is ‘light green’ is the foliage of the vegetation growing on the exterior walls and roof. Designed by Bricault Design, the 1700 square foot addition was done out of need for more space to accommodate the owners’ growing family. Attaching to the original cottage, the addition almost takes up the entire lot.

I hate when people go to great lengths to explain the obvious in architecture, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. These are a few of the notable sustainable features:

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•Living exterior wall system (irrigated with recycled graywater/rainwater)

•Green Roof with half comprised of a highly productive vegetable garden

•Solar array that supplies almost all of the entire structure’s electrical needs

•Radiant in-floor heat

•Combination high efficiency hot water boiler that provides in-floor radiant heat and hot water

•Central staircase doubles as a chimney to draw cooling breezes through the house

•On-demand hot water (reduces water usage)

•Recycled cotton and spray foam insulation

•Low-flow fixtures

•Non-toxic/Low VOC finishes

The Good: A home addition that takes into account almost every addressable aspect of sustainable design and construction using both well-established and creative new methods.

The Bad: Home has a large footprint and some may say too large for the area. No yard (though it’s actually on the roof).

The Bottom-Line: A rare instance where a green home truly is green; both literally and figuratively.

To see more interior and exterior views of the house, check out the original post on one of my new favorite green blogs,  Sincerely Sustainable.