Endurance Dwellings
The Holocene Epoch began some 12,000 years ago and concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The name has been changed to the Anthropocene Epoch because its primary characteristic is the global change caused by human activity.
Anthromes (human biomes) describe the terrestrial biosphere in contemporary, human altered form. We have the first force-driven Northwest Biome.
Moondance is an Endurance Dwelling. We are indebted to, and follow closely, the observations and mandates of key advocates for developing responsibly.
The standards from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, standards from the Living Building Challenge, directives from the International Living Future Institute, systems and best practices of Low Impact Development techniques and ideas from ‘A Pattern Language’ have elevated this unique, pre-eminent building into the realm of extraordinary force-based structures.
There will be only one.
Seven Principles of Universal Design
- Equitable use: Useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities
- Flexibility in use: Accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities
- Simple and intuitive use: Easy to understand regardless of users experience, knowledge, language skills or current concentration level
- Perceptible information: Communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities
- Tolerance for error: Minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions
- Low physical effort: Used effectively and comfortably with a minimum of fatigue
- Size and space for approach and use: Provides appropriate size and space for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of users body size, posture or mobility
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED
Sitecrafting and ergonomic design principles promote sustainability by assigning five key areas of human and environmental health:
- Sustainable Site Development: Moonshadow Ventures explores the inherent nature of local ecosystems using Wild Sitecrafting techniques; this way we can reveal their latent personalities.
- Water Savings: By best use methods we collect, distribute, characterize, expose and use rainwater with a system of SWRPys (Surface Water Retention Ponds).
- Energy Efficiency: Our electrical / alternative energy systems analyst understands our needs and will connect with active solar and other appropriate systems tailored for our project.
- Materials Selection: All materials for every division will be chosen for the value they bring to this project; fundamental utility, green rating, cost, safety and sustainability.
- Indoor Environmental Quality: Fresh air is part of a healthy home; with well-designed ventilation and careful selection of materials our dwellings have dynamic, clean atmospheres. Air is like water – if it doesn’t move it gets stale.
International Living Future Institute ILFI
International Living Future Institute promotes the seven performance categories of the Living Building Challenge called Petals. There are seven of them:
- Place
- Water
- Energy
- Health and Happiness
- Materials
- Equity
- Beauty
Petals are subdivided into a total of 20 Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence. At Moonshadow Ventures we have been advocates and copycats of these well-studied systems and models.
The Living Building Challenge LBC
A philosophy, advocacy and certification program of the International Living Future Institute. It engages the broader building industry in the deep conversations required to understand how to solve problems rather than shift them.
An evocative guide, it asks ‘What if every single act of design and construction, made the world a better place? It positions the ideal as the indicator of success, and demonstrates that incremental change is no longer a viable option.
A call to action, with a goal to increase awareness, it tackles critical environmental, social and economic problems.
A unified tool that allows us to envision a future that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative.
A visionary path to an exciting, sustainable future.
The Living Future Challenge is:
A bold new framework for re-thinking the way humanity designs its systems, products, buildings and communities. Based on the elegant and profound architecture of the Living Building Challenge, utilizing nature as the ultimate end-game metric for success, the Living Future Challenge now branches into all aspects of society:
- Living Food
- Living Products
- Living Buildings
- Living Communities
- Living Enterprises
- Living Lifestyles
The Living Product Challenge is:
The re-imagining of design and construction products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. Living Products are informed by biomimicry and biophilia; manufactured by processes powered only by renewable energy and within the water balances of the places they are made.
Living Products improve our quality of life and bring joy through their beauty and functionality.
Imagine a Living Product (an Endurance Dwelling) whose very existence builds soil, creates habitat, nourishes the human spirit and provides inspiration for personal, philosophical and economic change; truly a worthy legacy.
Projects are renewable and transformational, built on the strength of our natural treasures. They display phenomena typically associated with Northwest ecosystems; we design structures and craft sites to be a continuous saga of discovery and evolution.