The RootLove Design & Construction Philosophy
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When I first discovered what would become RootLove, there was only a three-season log home in a clearing surrounded by 33 acres of forest. This cabin was built with natural materials from the forest. Unlike my previous design work, it was the natural world and wildlife of this place that inspired my design. Nature itself was the grand architect.
RootLove would become an eco-sustainable creative healing retreat, utilizing cutting edge contemporary technologies alongside building practices from time immemorial. I initially believed, as do many misinformed consumers, that eco technologies were cost prohibitive budget-breakers. I also believed that eco builds were short on comfort and luxury and prone to breakdowns. But, on the contrary, both of these assumptions were not the reality.
By embracing the natural world, RootLove would become a place of beauty and functionality. A place that produces its own power and water. A place where we two legged creatures share our environment with wildlife in balance.
It’s time, in fact it’s long overdue, for us to think outside of the conventional box in regards to how we build and exist. Should we continue in our traditional building thinking, we will end up in the proverbial box 'coffin' as a species. Call it eco, or sustainable, or green, it’s a holistic approach to creating structures and products that radically minimize the negative impacts on our shared environment.
The principals of this building approach are as old as time. Its priority is managing resource efficiency, energy, water and materials. This promotes occupant and environmental health and happiness, by using nontoxic materials and integrating with natural systems, for long term ecological balance and living wellbeing. By respecting and healing the natural world we are healing ourselves.
Again, the myth of exuberant costs is not reality based. In fact, such eco building processes are not only competitive but often much less than conventional building practises. In terms of investment 'equity', eco builds are extremely attractive. As for the aesthetic beauty of such structures and their inherent functionality, they are as seamless as they are sublime.
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David Harcourt
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