Nick Nied of Ichijo USA and Clint Hamilton of Howland Homes

This is Nick Nied of Ichijo USA, and Clint Hamilton of Howland Homes.  These are our joint venture partners building the project.  Nick is project manager for construction, and Clint is the site superintendant.  I will do more extensive profiles on both of them in the future.

Dennis Rominger, Puget Sound Energy

Dennis Rominger is Puget Sound Energy’s representative on zHome.  He’s been heavily involved in the project for years now, and has been a very important person in its life.  Right now Dennis is taking the lead on college and youth zHome education and has been doing a terrific job.  He recently did a class for Shoreline Community College’s zero energy class and it was great to hear another perspective on our design process and the importance of the project.

Dennis is a great guy, and a ton of fun to work with.  He is a very hard worker and a project manager par excellence.  He is very passionate about energy efficiency and getting real change on the ground.  There are a lot of dreamers involved in zHome, and even though Dennis dreams with the best of us, he is also pragmatic and always thinking about getting the job actually done.  We are very lucky to have him involved in the project!

Q: Tell us a little bit about Ichijo as a company.

A: Since our company, Ichijo, was established on 1978, we have focused on the business for custom-built houses. Unlike as is typical in the United States, our custom homes are factory built, and thus able to be offered at more typical production home prices.  Currently, we have more than 3,400 employees, and last year, we built more than 8,000 houses nationwide in Japan (revenues were approximately 2.1 billion US Dollars).  Although there are many major home builders in Japan,  Ichijo was ranked  No.1 in performance in Super-Insulated Houses (“Energy Efficient Houses” in broad sense), and had the No.1 track record in Seismically-Isolated Houses as well. 

Prebuilt wall panels being fabricated

Q:  zHome is Ichijo’s first venture in the United States. I think this says a lot about both zHome and Ichijo. What was attractive to you about zHome?

A:  It was August last year when we first heard about the zHome project.  The  net zero energy consumption design concept of zHome is exactly the same direction where Ichijo is heading. Last year, when we found out about zHome, we wanted to know our worldwide position in energy efficiency performance, and how our houses would be evaluated by the people and construction industry of the US, which is the country of origin of wood framed construction.

One more attractive thing is that there is the participation of a great home builder, Howland Homes.  Just like us, Howland Homes is oriented toward environmentally-friendly houses. I am sure that we could not move forward by ourselves without their sincere cooperation. It was only a couple of days when we stayed in Seattle last year, where we met Matt Howland and learned about zHome.  So, I would say it was a miracle that both of us could meet each other and we were able to find out about the zHome project during our brief stay.  It will be very impressive for our colleagues as well as our customers in Japan if they know that we are participating in this project in the US.

Q:  I understand Ichijo has an innovative housing model in Japan, the i-cube.  Can you tell us more about it?

A:  Briefly speaking, there are three key features in the i-cube. First, very high insulation performance, second, very high air-tightness performance, and third and most important, that we could provide reasonable and affordable price to our customers in Japan.  In combination with other hi-tech items, i.e. heat pump, heat exchange ventilation, and PV systems, these enable the i-cube to be an ideal highly energy efficient house.  Based on all these energy efficient components, the i-cube uses about 54% of the energy of a similar sized and configured home built to the Washington State Energy Code.

i-cube under construction

The current Japanese home buying market is primarily focused on durability, as well as homes being earthquake proof. However, new home durability mainly benefits the  next generation, and a giant earthquake might happen less than one or two times in a lifetime, while highly energy efficient houses are closely related to your daily comfort and daily energy expense.  But then again, most Japanese home buyers are hesitant to buy highly energy efficient houses with significant extra budget. So, we think that innovations in reasonable pricing for highly efficient homes are most important for them to become widespread, and then it will finally contribute to a large amount of CO2 reduction.

Q:  What sorts of other innovations has Ichijo introduced in its homes?

A:  Among other things, we are proud to introduce our Seismically-Isolated Houses.  This is a technology which physically isolates the home from earthquakes.  It involves the homes being built on a large set of vibration controllers which sit between the foundation and the home structure.  We developed it in partnership with Bridgestone, the world’s largest tire and rubber company. We have a track record of 3,600 Seismically-Isolated Houses as of Dec. 2009, and the No. 1 track record in total number of Seismically-Isolated Houses so far built in Japan.  [Ed:  There is a very cool short film of the interior of a seismically isolated home versus a conventional home in a simulated earthquake on the Ichijo website.  Scroll down the page and click on the images to view.] 

Seismically-isolated home demonstration at testing laboratory

We have also developed heat exchanger ventilation systems which have a 90% heat recovery rate, radiant floor heating systems, and double paned windows we build ourselves.  This enables us not only to minimize costs, but to optimize quality control through the entire production process. We manufacture more than 70% of the total housing components which go into the i-cube, and we need only 45 working days of construction for home completion once the foundation is complete and the components are on the building site.      

Q:  On a personal note, what have been your impressions of the United States?  Is it the same or different than you imagined?

A:  Thanks to the zHome project, I was able  to visit the US for the first time. I was very much impressed that there is so much green, forests, and the beautiful waterfront in greater Seattle area, and it reminded me of the importance of consciousness about sustainability. 

Also, business infrastructure through the internet, specifically the websites of each government agency, is very advanced and well organized. I did not feel any discomfort with starting business here in US.

Mark Weirenga, Project Architect for David Vandervort Architects

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, CA - Bernard Mayback, architect

Here is Mark talking about the project in his own words:

Mark Weirenga talks about zHome

Mayor Ava Frisinger has a long standing commitment and orientation to the environment, in her words “the relationship of people and ecology”.  She was raised in rural Michigan, where the local farming community, and its rootedness to the Earth, helped form her thinking about human/environmental connections.  The Michigan wildlands – seen via canoe, hikes, and birding outings – also formed an early environmental ethic.  A major in English literature and an equal emphasis on biological sciences reflected these connections, and served to articulate and strengthen them. 

In 1967, Mayor Frisinger moved to Issaquah.  The City then had 4,000 residents, compared to the current 27,000.  The Mayor found Washington “unspoiled”, and felt even then a strong commitment to protecting that heritage.  In 1982, she was appointed to the Planning Commission, and sat on the City Council from 1986 to 1994, and also in 1996 and 1997.  In 1998, she was elected Mayor, a role she has served in to this day. 

Mayor Frisinger is known regionally as an innovator in sustainability and the environment.  She was an early advocate of the Issaquah Highlands and Talus urban villages, which were a new regional paradigm for contained, livable, walkable communities as an alternative to suburban sprawl.  Work with the Planning Accreditation Board and the Global Action Plan Eco Team program in the mid 90s gave her an exposure to sustainability that resonated with her already established values.  A sustainability symposium in Canada further heightened her interest, leading to establishment of the City’s Resource Conservation Office. 

zHome is lucky to count the Mayor as one of its strong supporters.  She has made the project a high priority, and has helped move it forward during its long and winding path.  But it will be just one part of the larger legacy she will leave the City. 

Aaron is the Executive Director of Built Green. He was part of the core group that came together in early 2006 to shape and launch the project (that initial group included David Fujimoto and I from the City of Issaquah, Aaron and Koben Calhoun from Built Green, and Patti Southard and Katie Spataro from King County). From the start Aaron has been filled with a passion for what the project can be and mean in advancing ultra sustainable housing, but at the same time his passion is balanced with pragmatism and realism. He is quick on his feet, and is a very direct communicator (a couple of days ago, after Aaron shared some thoughts with Doug Howland, I asked Doug if those thoughts were consistent with what I had said, and Doug said yes, except that I had taken five minutes longer to say the same thing).

When he is not helping us move our project along, Aaron is focused on running the Built Green program. Built Green of King/Snohomish Counties is one of the largest and most successful green building programs in the country. Aaron manages the Executive Committee, certifies thousands of units a year, runs a major regional conference, and acts as one of the leading spokespeople for green building in the region. He manages this with a steadiness and verve that are the envy of many. We are lucky to have Aaron as part of our core team moving this project forward.