Living Lightly

Forget the hippie ‘70s version of “green”--unattractive straw-bale and rammed-earth homes, black solar roof panels and toilets that didn’t flush. Today’s sustainable homes are less hippie, more hip.

Take the sleek 21st century Case Study home of American entrepreneur Craig Ehrlich and ex-Hong Kong politician-turned-think-tank founder Christine Loh. Although Hong Kong is the couple’s primary residence, they wanted to establish a base in California, where Ehrlich grew up. An attractive, sustainably designed home and garden topped their list of priorities.

The last thing Ehrlich and Loh wanted was another Westside McMansion. They told their Los Angeles architects, John Friedman and his partner and wife Alice Kimm, to include all the comforts of home, but no air conditioning. They wanted a garden that was grass-free and irrigated with gray water. Low-flow toilets and radiant-heat floors were called for. “We both wanted to make sure to use the right kind of materials that ... would be less environmentally heavy on the earth,” explains Loh, whose Hong Kong organization, Civic Exchange, deals with sustainability and the environment.

The architects focused on siting the new two-story, 3,400-square-foot Santa Monica residence to take advantage of passive solar strategies.

To that end, the frontyard of the former ‘50s ranch house, which faced busy San Vicente Boulevard, became a private garden, while the new frontyard faces a quieter side street. The home’s southeastern exposure now draws in cooling ocean breezes, while the harsh summer sun is cut by large overhanging eaves. In addition, a spacious staircase atrium with two motorized skylights draws and releases hot air like a chimney. “When the wind passes over the skylights, it creates a negative pressure drawing hot air from the house,” Friedman explains.

The rear and side of the home are enclosed by floor-to-ceiling, multitrack glass doors that seamlessly open to integrate the garden with the interior. The open-plan first floor features a kitchen, dining and living room, with a small office and bath tucked away by the entry. A large koi pond wraps around the corner of the living room; dragonflies occasionally flit in, cruise the length of the room and exit by the kitchen, Ehrlich says.

“Having a lovely garden was very important to us,” says the expat, who has lived for nearly 20 years in a two-bedroom flat with no garden in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels neighborhood. “In Hong Kong, no one but the very elite mega-rich have private gardens.” The Asian-inspired garden, presided over by two terra-cotta Xian warriors, is both lovely to look at and drought-tolerant. Instead of a water-guzzling lawn, the frontyard is planted in dymondia and blue fescue grass ground covers irrigated with gray water. Collected from bathroom sinks, bathtubs, showers and the washing machine, the water is filtered and held in an underground tank until needed.

Environmentally friendly cement board and stucco were used to clad the modern exterior, which was covered with a nontoxic paint. Inside, low-maintenance concrete was used for the first floor, while sustainably harvested jatoba, a.k.a. Brazilian cherry, and mangaris accent doors, upstairs floors and a bathtub.

Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof supply 90% of the home’s electricity. A net meter connected to the Santa Monica power grid often runs backward when the couple are abroad, ensuring what must be one of the lowest electricity bills on the Westside--about $50 a month. An efficient gas water heater in the garage warms the radiant-heat concrete floors, but Ehrlich swears it’s been on fewer than a dozen times in the last 18 months.

In the kitchen, medium-density fiberboard cabinets, made without formaldehyde, are covered with low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint; the countertops and splash are capped in CaesarStone. There’s an energy-efficient Bosch dishwasher too. Still, some appliances were chosen with aesthetics in mind rather than efficiency, including a large Sub-Zero refrigerator and a Viking double oven with six burners and a grill. “I would be the first to admit that this is not a 100% green home,” says Friedman, who considers himself a sustainable architect. “It is not necessary to sacrifice beauty for sustainability--one can always have both.”