zHome Tour

Our visit to the zHome provided lots of insight about various green options for residences. I gained many important ideas from this experience, such as the concept of circulating the air and heating or cooling the home in a more efficient manner by allowing the warm air already in the structure to mingle with the colder outside air being brought in. I was also very impressed with the garage setup, and the reasoning behind it. By moving the garages and other parking to the back of the complexes, the cluster of apartments is able to remain “green-centric” as opposed to having a barren parking lot between buildings like most apartments. Having the garages and parking located somewhere other than between all of the buildings also allows for a smaller space footprint, as there is no need for space to maneuver and park cars. Perhaps most importantly, though, the zHome tour really demonstrated that affordable housing doesn't have to look like small, run-down apartments.