(1888PressRelease)
September 27, 2009 - By David Joy - staff writer (Crossroads Chronicle)
Recently celebrating 25 years of designing custom homes across the U.S., Cashiers-based architect Rand Soellner has an interesting outlook on home design.
Though the coined term "green" is a recent fad, Soellner explained that environmentally friendly home designs have been available for hundreds of years, and he has been designing and creating these "green" homes since the 1970s.
"I went to the University of Florida and that was just part of the curriculum," Soellner said. "They always inspired in us a desire to connect with the environment."
Soellner feels that it is important for homes to blend into the landscape and for developers to take on as much environmental responsibility as they can.
For these reasons, Soellner has spent his career designing homes that look like they sprang up from the landscape and has recently incorporated fresh ideas to raise environmental consciousness at his home sites.
Incorporating energy-saving insulation and an extra dumpster at each site to recycle material, Soellner thinks developers need incentives to push the incorporation of "green" ideas.
"You have to have an economic incentive for people to do things," Soellner explained. "One of the reasons we've come up with the idea of two dumpsters is because it doesn't cost anything more, you can recycle all that waste material, the contractor can make money by selling it to the recyclers, the recyclers can make money by selling it to big companies, and the companies can make money by selling it to the consumers.
"When a home is finally finished the volume of trash is approximately equal in size to the built home," Soellner added. "If we can recycle half the waste debris and sell that to companies, they can reuse it."
Beyond incorporating "green" building practices into home design, Soellner is known worldwide for his ability to design homes that fit in with the surrounding landscapes.
Soellner feels that it is extremely important everywhere to design homes that do not disrupt the natural beauty of the place, but that it is particularly important in the mountains.
"I think it's important to preserve in the way that we design homes so that the same values that drew us here when we moved here continue to do so once we build our homes," Soellner explained.
"I've seen places where all of the beautiful hillside was devastated by developers destroying the very thing that attracted people to it in the first place with this carpet of asphalt. I think it is very important to be careful how we develop Cashiers, Lake Toxaway, Highlands, Glenville, and Sapphire."
The ways that Soellner believes home designers can compliment the surrounding landscape is by using colors and textures that mimic those around the home. By using natural tones and indigenous materials, such as rocks and barks, the home will look like it emerged from the landscape rather than plopped into it.
"In the end, you are doing something for the community, doing something for the environment, and you might even put some money in your pocket," Soellner concluded. "We call it going green for less."
Contact Information:
Rand Soellner Architect
Rand Soellner, AIA/NCARB
Website: www.randarch.com
related website: www.cashiersncland.com
E-mail: randsoellner ( @ ) earthlink (dot) com
Phone: 828-743-6010
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