Toaster House earns LEED Gold House

"Down with Dull Houses" is a strong battle cry, but "Down with Irrelevant Houses" should be its companion. Here at Meridian Contracting Ltd./Tempietto Homes our response has been to develop a style we call 'Solar Modern'. Our future must be a solar future. Every home must not only conserve energy, it must also produce its own. New forms can demonstrate this commitment. We are dedicated to exploring the aesthetic possibilities of solar, sustainability, and technology. We want to capture not only the common-sense necessity of this direction, but its beauty, excitement, and satisfaction. Hearts and minds will follow. There are new high-performance materials on the market, but these are barely in use due to lack of familiarity. What we have done, (and Toaster House was our first model home to test this), was to combine them all into an integrated package. The results are a LEED Gold House, and a LEED national finalist for 2012 "New Home of the Year". The requirements of solar and sustainability add a new and dynamic vocabulary. Fresh and compelling designs can work at all scales and applications. We have designs for large custom homes, as well as modest, economical versions that emphasize flexibility. A series of complementary styles can be combined for cluster situations as well. The time is now to demonstrate that the future will be beautiful. Windsor Mallet: principal Bram Koss: project manager Owen Thomas: design captain Emily Condon: interior design