American building big energy-efficient house
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN American man is building a huge house in the Ozarks Mountains in Missouri with 13 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and other features that could include a library, music room, theater and a massive garage.
With a footprint equivalent to a little under 8,100 square meters, it would be one of the United States's largest privately owned houses, according to various lists.
But it's the materials that homeowner Steven Huff seems most proud of when he talks about the castle-like structure on 203 wooded hectares in southwest Missouri.
The house is made from a special steel-reinforced concrete that is energy-efficient and resistant to various forces of nature - notably tornadoes in an area prone to them.
Huff, 60, is chairman of TF Concrete Forming Systems, which makes the concrete. He grew up in Missouri. His mansion-in-the-making, called Pensmore, has drawn so much attention and speculation that he released a prepared statement this week about it.
"The mission behind Pensmore is to serve as a living laboratory for ongoing research into energy conservation and disaster resistance," he said.
"While the structure will also be a home to my family, our hope is that curiosity and gossip will fade to make room for the valuable insights a project of this scale can yield for building the homes, schools, hospitals and office buildings of the future."
The idea is for the structure to be big enough to serve as a model of efficiency and durability for large commercial buildings, even though it is a house, said Luke Pinkerton, founder of Helix, which is providing steel for the project.
The concrete is mixed with bits of steel, poured into wall forms and insulated on the outside, Pinkerton said, and concrete absorbs the heat, keeping the house cooler.
The house is probably more than a year from completion, said Todd Wiesehan, planning and zoning administrator for Christian County. It will use nearly US$6.9 million in building materials, according to the permit application.
With a footprint equivalent to a little under 8,100 square meters, it would be one of the United States's largest privately owned houses, according to various lists.
But it's the materials that homeowner Steven Huff seems most proud of when he talks about the castle-like structure on 203 wooded hectares in southwest Missouri.
The house is made from a special steel-reinforced concrete that is energy-efficient and resistant to various forces of nature - notably tornadoes in an area prone to them.
Huff, 60, is chairman of TF Concrete Forming Systems, which makes the concrete. He grew up in Missouri. His mansion-in-the-making, called Pensmore, has drawn so much attention and speculation that he released a prepared statement this week about it.
"The mission behind Pensmore is to serve as a living laboratory for ongoing research into energy conservation and disaster resistance," he said.
"While the structure will also be a home to my family, our hope is that curiosity and gossip will fade to make room for the valuable insights a project of this scale can yield for building the homes, schools, hospitals and office buildings of the future."
The idea is for the structure to be big enough to serve as a model of efficiency and durability for large commercial buildings, even though it is a house, said Luke Pinkerton, founder of Helix, which is providing steel for the project.
The concrete is mixed with bits of steel, poured into wall forms and insulated on the outside, Pinkerton said, and concrete absorbs the heat, keeping the house cooler.
The house is probably more than a year from completion, said Todd Wiesehan, planning and zoning administrator for Christian County. It will use nearly US$6.9 million in building materials, according to the permit application.
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