A Green House

The Glidehouse™: A prefabricated house you can build anywhere

The Green House exhibition featured a full-scale replica of architect Michelle Kaufmann’s Glidehouse™—a prefabricated, green house ready to go anywhere. A walk through the house in the exhibition gives visitors a first-hand experience of what it might be like to live in a green house.

Full-scale replica of a portion of the prefabricated Glidehouse™, as installed in The Green House.

© Gretchen Franti / Hoachlander Davis Photograph

What Makes the Glidehouse™ Green?

• The prefabricated nature of the house results in comparatively little construction waste, particularly on the building site.
• The house can be positioned on its site to minimize solar loss in the winter and solar gain in the summer.
• The house’s design layout has a narrow footprint, facilitating cross ventilation in all rooms.
• The roof is sloped to receive solar panels and create a clerestory window that brings in natural light and minimizes the need for artificial lighting.  
• Windows are placed to maximize solar benefits and natural ventilation.
• Sliding panels of wood louvers cover the long glass façade and can be adjusted to control the level of sunlight entering the house while maintaining air flow.
• The walls and roof are made of structurally insulated panels, or SIPS, a system that is well-regarded for its resistance to mold and soft foam insulation, which fully fills each panel.  
• Wood-to-wood wall joints are precisely caulked to make the house airtight, minimizing the vulnerability to mold and lowering heating and cooling loads. 
• Floors are bamboo, a fast-growing, easily renewable material.
• Lightweight concrete countertops are made of recycled newspaper and fly ash.
• Kitchen cabinets are free of toxic formaldehyde.
• Kitchen appliances are energy-smart.
• Bathroom fixtures, such as the toilet and Tankless water heater, save water and are energy efficient.
• Walls are finished in non-toxic paints.
• Energy-efficient fluorescent lighting is used throughout the house. 

Click here for a list of the materials, furniture, and products featured in the Glidehouse.