Product Description

Ecohouse 2 tells you how to design low energy, environmentally friendly buildings. It provides the foundations for building design in a warming world, and shows how to take the first step towards the zero-carbon emission buildings of tomorrow.


Sue Roaf is famed for her approach to design and her awareness of energy efficiency. Here she reveals the concepts, structures and techniques that lie behind the realization of her ideals. By using her own house as a case-study Roaf guides the reader through the ideas for energy efficient design or 'eco design'.

This second edition, a follow up to the best selling original, introduces new sections including earth sheltering and reed beds. It also explores 24 case-studies of ecohouses from around the world. It is an ideal comprehensive reference for architects, designers and their clients, as well as self builders, who wish to help make sustainable design a reality.

* 24 case studies from around the world show how Ecohouse principles can be applied in different climates and cultures
* Contributions from experts including Christopher Day, Robert and Brenda Vale, Steven Szokolay, Peter Warm, Paul Jennings, Andre Viljoen and Nick Grant provide key specialist know-how
* Discussion of environmentally-friendly form and construction gives both students and practitioners an invaluable overview of the topic

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1404344 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
Reviews for the first edition of Ecohouse:

'It's great to read a book with a no-nonsense message'
The Architectural Review

'Sue Roaf has been able to show wonderful examples of climate-sensitive design from around the world. She addresses the architectural issues head on. The book is a good read, wonderfully illustrated and full of inspiration for the eco-enthusiast or self builder.' 5-star Amazon customer review

'At no time did I feel that the presentation was dry; the text is well supported by diagrams, photographs and technical drawings...The information is never less than practical and so far I have not come across a better way to grasp the subtleties and contradictions of what makes an ecohouse.' 5-star Amazon customer review

'I was prepared to find some of the sections a bit too techie, but in fact was riveted from start to finish. Very well written throughout and the case studies are fantastic.'
5-star Amazon customer review

Reviews for Ecohouse 2:
'A must-read for architects, builders and eco-house enthusiasts!'
EcoTech Magazine -- Review

Review
'As straightforward and compelling as Ed Mazria's The Passive Solar Energy Book (1979), this seminal work is today's most accessible guide for aspiring designers of sustainable residential buildings worldwide.'
Society of Building Science Educators

'A must-read for architects, builders and eco-house enthusiasts!'
EcoTech Magazine

Reviews for the First Edition of Ecohouse:
'It's great to read a book with a no-nonsense message.'
The Architectural Review

'Sue Roaf has been able to show wonderful examples of climate-sensitive design from around the world. She addresses the architectural issues head on. The book is a good read, wonderfully illustrated and full of inspiration for the eco-enthusiast or self builder.'
5-star Amazon customer review

Ecohouse 2 is a valuable introduction to green building principles.-- Energy Design Update

From the Publisher
Sue Roaf is famed for her approach to design and her awareness of energy efficiency. Here she reveals the concepts, structures and techniques that lie behind the realization of her ideals. By using her own house as a case-study Roaf guides the reader through the ideas for energy efficient design or 'eco design'.This guide to the ecohouse also explores 21 case-studies from around the world, from Norway and Sweden to India and Japan, Argentina and Mexico. Chapters by Christopher Day, Katerine Bohn and Andre Viljoen on ecological building materials and methods and a contribution by Robert and Brenda Vale - all experts in this fieldEcohouse has a regularly updated companion web site providing further information on all issues relating to Ecohouse and eco design.

Customer Reviews

It's not great but I don't know any other one that is better....
I bought this book after attending an exposition on ecohouses at the National Building Museum in Washington, which deeply inspired me. First of all I must say that I am not an architect or an engineer. Given that, the thing that annoyed me most about this book is the lack of depth in certain areas (I am a MD with a MSc in Toxicology and a PhD in Bioinformatics). I know that the book was written for a broad public but I expected to find more formulas and better explanations concerning the construction tecniques used for energy reduction. The book is too soft in some areas and does not explain in detail others (or is too confuse on the areas that it tries to go deeper). Also, the pictures don't have good legends and some times the reader is on its own when trying to interpret them. The chapter on ventilation has a lot of informations but I felt that it did not connected the dots very well. The chapter "Building-in soul", which has some kind of hollistic views on building ecohouses (in my point of view) is very obvious and mostly unecessary. In spite of that, I deeply enjoyed reading it and I would recommend the book. In the next edition I would like to see better diagrams, more technical information (formulas, tecniques, comparison tables etc). The examples at the end of the book could also be analyzed in more depth and using (as much as possible) homogeneous methods and the same parameters. More information on the additional cost to build ecohouses in relation to convetional ones would also be interesting.

Above quotation is misleading
In the editorial reviews section above, a sentence from the review in Energy Design Update has been edited in a way to favor the book. One of the sentences in the long review (February 2006 issue of EDU) noted, "The book, though flawed, is a valuable introduction to green building principles." The reference to flaws was fleshed out over the next two and a half pages. Whoever created the blurb for this page conveniently snipped out the clause, "though flawed."