Archinect - News

BIG designs off-grid 'adventure village' Vollebak Island

2023-06-01T14:29:00-04:00

BIG has shared details about their latest collaboration with British clothing company Vollebak to design a self-sufficient, off-grid island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Named after the brand, the 11-acre Vollebak Island is intended to be fully powered by carbon-neutral energy.

The island site centers around the 6,426-square-foot Earth House, a village-like series of nine interconnected buildings clustered under a man-made hill, and the 947-square-foot Wood House, a standalone garden suite structure on the island’s eastern shoreline.

View of Vollebak Island's Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vollebak

Each space on the island is made from material tailored for their specific uses, including stacked seaweed, compacted earth, hemp, glass brick, and locally-sourced stone. The island will be powered through a combination of offshore wind, geothermal energy, and solar power, with the energy stored in Tesla power walls.

The Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vo...

Your next job could be designing off-grid homes in Hawaii

2022-08-17T11:55:00-04:00

Last month, we used our Job Highlights series to profile an opportunity to design rural getaways at the full-service Brooklyn studio HUTS. The role offered an example of architectural careers intersecting with popular culture; in this case, the alluring cliché of leaving a bustling city to find peace in nature.

Our editorial frequently sees examples of residential typologies that have captured the mainstream imagination. These include the tiny house movement, minimalist living, and DIY homes; architecturally themed movements capable of sustaining popular Netflix shows, YouTube channels, and Instagram profiles.

For this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series, we are continuing this theme by exploring open opportunities to design off-grid homes in Hawaii. The roles, advertised by Haiku-based Hawaii Off-Grid, offers interested applicants the opportunity to engage with...

Homesteading in America

2019-07-16T19:40:00-04:00

It’s also not hard to picture oneself as a homesteader. The land is not free but it is cheap—some of the cheapest in the United States. In many respects, a person could live here in this vast, empty space like the pioneers did on the Great Plains—except you’d have a truck instead of a mule, and some solar panels, possibly even a cell-phone signal. And legal weed.

"The San Luis Valley, with its cheap land, was a sort of magnet for these off-gridders," writes Ted Conover in his fascinating long read for Harper's Magazine about homesteaders on the margins of America. "There were a few hundred of them in total. Nationwide there are probably several thousand people living off the grid. No authoritative numbers exist, but off-grid life seems to be growing, often in states with cheap land (Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri), sunshine and cheap land (Nevada, Arizona, Texas), and/or frontier appeal (Alaska, Idaho)."

Álvaro Siza Vieira completes off-grid, minimalist chapel in Portugal

2018-07-12T14:15:00-04:00

Described as "a pure architectural project" by the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, the Hillside Chapel he recently completed has no electricity, heating or running water. Instead, the modest chapel relies on natural ventilation, and clever use of materials such as insulated bricks and limestone to create an off-grid, conceptually interesting materialization of faith.

The chapel is surrounded by natural landscape, making it a peaceful, spirit-restoring retreat. All images courtesy of João Morgado.

Aerial view emphasizing the geometry of the chapel and its surrounding natural landscape. All images courtesy of João Morgado.

One of Portugal’s most celebrated architects, the Pritzker Prize winner was approached to design the Capela do Monte by a Swiss-American couple. The couple, who have been living in Portugal's Algarve region since the mid-1980s, are building out a spiritual retreat in the country's southernmost region for which the non-denominational space will serve as a focal point.

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How solar battery storage will affect microgrids and off-grid living

2017-08-14T17:32:00-04:00

In March, Tesla cut the ribbon on this groundbreaking grid-scale battery installation, a key test of the viability of energy storage in making renewable energy a more reliable part of the grid. With 50,000 solar panels and 272 batteries, the combined solar-and-storage plant provides enough energy to power 4,500 homes for four hours. If Tesla can help keep Kauai solar-powered around the clock with its batteries, then it can apply what it has learned elsewhere in the country, and around the world

In her Longreads/Grist piece, author Amelia Urry explains the changing nature of solar power challenges that off-grid dwellers as well as smaller, geographically isolated microgrids face now that battery storage on an industrial scale is becoming more lucrative.

The article tells the story of a young couple struggling to live off the grid on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, when at the same time, the local utility cooperative switches on its brand-new bank of Tesla batteries to store the abundant solar power it generates during daytime but couldn't offer during peak times in the early morning and late evening hours: "It’s not about getting off the grid. It’s about building a better one."

Beyond the Grid's vision to make a Lower Manhattan neighborhood more resilient

2014-12-18T13:58:00-05:00

While independent communications infrastructure, renewable energy, and resilient heating and power systems may all be major priorities in contemporary urban development, the three aren’t typically incorporated into the same project. Beyond The Grid — an ambitious plan underway in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Lower Manhattan — does just that. And the fact that the proposal has been created in this neighborhood is no accident.

Why SolarCity and Tesla are going to replace your utility

2013-11-27T15:00:00-05:00

SolarCity, the Silicon Valley solar installer, has quietly begun to offer some homeowners a lithium-ion battery pack made by electric carmaker Tesla to store electricity generated by their rooftop photovoltaic arrays. Stem, another Silicon Valley company, will sell or lease a $100,000, 54-kilowatt-hour battery pack to businesses so they can arbitrage the grid by storing electricity when rates are cheap and then using that energy when they’re high.

Abandoned stable becomes off-grid, luxurious family dream home

2012-02-24T18:02:00-05:00

Without access to the grid, the Alonsos added photovoltaics and hydro power and worked to ensure the home wouldn't use much energy. The original position of the stable worked to their favor. The southern exposure allows for the sun to be the main source of heat during the winter. The Alonsos also added large wooden shutters that slide closed like a second skin, covering the large windows at night to trap in most of the home's daily solar heat gain.