The little Southwest community of Civano, Tuscon, Arizona's neighborhood where eco-friendly building is king, recently hosted a pioneering workshop to explore a myriad of old-but-new building products that are fast becoming the most politically correct for today's homebuilders. The 2,600-home, 1,100-acre community was the site of a workshop sponsored by the National Association of Home Builder's PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing) organization, Fannie Mae, and the industry periodical bible, BUILDER Magazine, where much of the information used for this article was gleaned.

More than 100 participants from the various building trades gathered at Civano, touted as America's "first sustainable, new urban community." To the average consumer, building homes with what most would deem simpler technology should be an easy task - eco-sciences and technologies at first glance look quite elementary and basic. To actually bring all of the elements together and convince a hundreds-year-old industry with millions of livelihoods at stake to see the beauty and value of these technologies, however, is a monumental task.

BUILDER first offered a Hands-On "residential laboratory" tour to the participants to get a feel for the products that would be used in the Civano homes' construction. Nine different stations gave participants the opportunity to poke, prod and handle the products themselves. Next, a round of seminars and demonstrations took place, starting with a presentation by renowned new urban architect Stefanos Polyzoides of Pasadena, California's Moule and Polyzoides, the firm that designed and planned much of Civano. His presentation was followed by a succession of Tuscon residential builders' seminars on the use of non-wood alternatives to building.

Also covered were seminars on the political and financial aspects of eco-building, workshops on building codes, and marketing tips for builders to reach out to consumers with these technologies. Experts also warned that "green" lovers are always suspicious of the mega-developer community, asking builders to be careful to keep their approach as purist as possible to succeed in their efforts.

Fannie Mae's participation included highlighting a zero-down payment mortgage, with incentives for low to middle-income buyers to purchase environmentally friendly homes, especially those in densely populated areas close to public transportation.

Here is a brief synopsis of some of the products used for the projects, with links wherever possible to articles in RealtyTimes archives for more detail:

Published: November 30, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.