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Vistacraft Engineers
Oct 19, 20155 min read
Effective Use of Email for Construction Project Communications and Documentation
Article reprinted by permission of Construction Connection who grants permission to use this copyrighted material solely for...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Oct 12, 20152 min read
Selecting Land for a New Home? Here are Some Tips
Both approaches have merit. If your heart is set on a Spanish style adobe home, obtaining a heavily treed lot may not make sense for you....
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Vistacraft Engineers
Oct 10, 20152 min read
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
IPD differs from the Traditional Project Delivery (TPD) method, also known as the design-bid-build method. Under TPD an owner develops...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jul 19, 20152 min read
Managing Your Project’s Budget: An Overview
Editors note: this article is the first of an occasional series which will explore the important topic of construction cost management...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jul 19, 20152 min read
Managing Project Costs Part-2: The Project Budget
Project Budget for a typical residence. Hard costs are those directly accruing to the construction and include materials, labor, overhead...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jul 1, 20154 min read
Introduction to Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
Using stressed-skin panels can reduce the time to frame the building envelope by more than one-third. This time savings can improve a...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jun 27, 20153 min read
EcoDistricts
Proposed “SouthWest Ecodistrict”, Washington, D.C. Originated by the City of Portland and the Portland Sustainability Institute (PoSI),...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jun 6, 20151 min read
Smart Growth
Birch Street shops surround a large movie theater on the block to the right. This variety of storefronts creates a more interesting place...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 18, 20152 min read
Buildings and Embodied Energy
Unlike the life cycle assessment, which evaluates all of the impacts over the whole life of a material or element, embodied energy only...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 18, 20152 min read
Sustainable Building Practice
The main objectives of sustainable design are to reduce, or completely avoid, depletion of critical resources like energy, water, and raw...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 17, 20152 min read
The Principle of Thermal Mass
Basic Passive Solar Design Materials with thermal mass are typically used in the floor or inside walls of a passive solar structure and...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 17, 20152 min read
Geothermal Heating and Cooling
Diagram of the geothermal heat exchange concept. Outdoor temperatures fluctuate with the changing seasons but underground temperatures...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 17, 20152 min read
Natural Ventilation: Permeable Buildings
Cross ventilation relies on wind for cooling. When wind blows on a building, a pressure difference is created between the windward...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 17, 20151 min read
Cool Roofing
Cool roofs reduce cooling energy use in the summer. Cool roofs are constructed with highly reflective and emissive materials, usually in...
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Vistacraft Engineers
May 17, 20152 min read
Stack Effect Ventilation
Chimney-like structures at the Queens Building, Leicester University are used to induce stack ventilation. The stack effect describes the...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Feb 23, 20153 min read
Integrated Project Delivery in Residential Green Building Design
Integrated design means thinking about how the parts fit together. This systems-thinking is how green homes achieve high performance and...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Feb 23, 20153 min read
Should You “Can” Your Plans For Recessed Cans?
The 2013 iteration of California’s Title 24 energy standards, which came into effect last July, effectively raises the bar on the energy...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Feb 14, 20153 min read
A Practical Guide to Cedar Siding
Cross-laminated cedar panels were chosen to clad Sentinel House, Vancouver, B.C. Architects are fortunate to have a wide variety of...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Feb 6, 20154 min read
Thermal Comfort in the Earthship
an elongated plan form oriented on an east-west axis, extensive amounts of glazing on the sun-facing flank, earth-sheltering by berming...
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Vistacraft Engineers
Jan 15, 20153 min read
Kitchens Guzzle Energy and Water, But a Green Kitchen Uses Less
The open plan kitchen at Sun and Sky House, http://www.silvernailarch.com/nhSun+Sky.html Plan Carefully for the Busiest Room in the House...
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