This Concord Custom Home demonstrates what's possible when starting from a clean sheet of paper and an eye towards sustainability.
Building from the ground up, all the facets of sustainable design and construction have been addressed. Solar alignment, air quality, rain water management, super insulation, day lighting, certified lumber, local sourcing, low VOCs, and waste water heat recovery all invisibly integrated with the features, trim levels and conveniences one expects to find in a 4400 ft2 luxury home.
The Concord 4-square project is a research study in methods and materials for Deep Energy Retrofits which Synergy completed in conjunction with Building Science Corporation and their chief building scientists. Very early in this new wave of retrofits, new theories were put into practice to answer the question, can a 50% reduction in energy usage be met with existing housing. We far surpassed this modest goal, and laid the ground work for the most popular form of Deep Energy Retrofit, exterior application of rigid foam.
