Green Building

Developing alternatives to the ubiquitous vinyl-clad manufactured housing or energy and resource intensive, oversized custom homes that are proliferating in our region is an essential part of our mission at Moose Pond Arts+Ecology. The building crew at MPA+E is currently involved with two projects which are allowing us to experiment with a variety of alternative techniques geared toward using local, sustainably harvested, and non-toxic materials to create efficient and beautiful shelter.

Scott and Zizi Vlaun began building their house and studio in 1999 using selectively harvested Balsam Fir poles that were peeled and joined using simple techniques. The size of the original building (around 300 square feet) was in part determined by the size of the timbers that we could carry or drag from the surrounding forest. Beams were at first hand hewn, but we soon acquired a small bandsaw mill that has become essential to our building work, allowing us to create usable materials from the most marginal trees. All the boards for the house were made with the mill using the culls left behind by the commercial logging operation that somewhat ravaged the land before we bought it. The house has since grown to include a hand-laid stone root cellar and a kitchen and gallery/library space are in the final stages of construction utilizing double stud-frame infill walls, recycled cotton insulation and earth plaster made from clay and sand. The final phase of the building will include a yoga studio, sauna and attached solar greenhouse.

Shawn Kane and his partner Seal Rossignol have begun construction on a new building that we call the ’ÄúPond House’Äù as it will overlook two small man-made ponds which we plan to expand as funds are available. The Pond House will also be constructed of timber selectively harvested from our land and will utilize a rubble trench foundation, wood chip and clay infill system and earth-based plasters all generated from local materials with low embodied energy.

Other smaller building projects have included an outdoor kitchen abutting our garden that we use from mid-April through the harvest season, a stall for our draft horse, and a straw-bale chicken coop attached to our greenhouse.

• Elegance and simplicity of design (even if complex in function)

• Appropriate use of ’ÄúHigh-tech & Low-tech’Äù

• Appropriate scale

• User friendly (human interface well designed)

• User understandable

• User and/or field serviceable

• Efficiently uses renewable energy sources

• Produces little or no toxins or pollutants and does not release carbon into the atmasphere.

• Low embodied energy relative to production or use

• Made using recycled materials

• Locally produced using locally obtained materials when possible

• Durable

Horse Logging and Sustainable Forestry

Since the arrival of Jake, our Belgian draft horse, we have learned a great deal about removing logs from our woodlands with the least possible impact on the land and without the fossil fuel consumption, noise and pollution of the internal combustion engine. Jake has helped us selectively harvest timber from our forest and to move other materials like stone and finished lumber to our building sites.

Our goal in the forest is to promote healthy growth while utilizing dead, dying, diseased or damaged trees. We also continue to thin around our buildings and gardens to maximize our access to solar energy. Jake has also helped us to assist neighbors by removing logs from their property with the lowest possible impact on the land. The creation of horse logging trails has had the added benefit of developing a trail system for hiking and skiing. We are looking forward to integrating Jake into our sustainable agricultural strategies as we acquire the proper tools and techniques.