Tucson Innovative Home Tour 2007

Review of Homes:  What You Can See on the Tour This Year

This year’s tour has a wonderful variety of great homes and new innovations, most of which have never been open to the public before. There are many highly acclaimed and award-winning homes and many waiting to be discovered, with the emphasis, as ever, on the practical and cost-effective. As usual, there are more homes new on the tour than homes reappearing from last year. There are 15 homes at 10 locations this year.

On Saturday you will have a very special opportunity to see two homes that are among the most advanced homes in the Southwest.

But this is just a start. Every home on the tour this year is among the most remarkable homes in the state. No matter what your interests or the size of your pocketbook, there are lots of great new ideas waiting for you, with opportunities to speak with the people who put them to good use. You'll get to meet some very interesting, knowledgeable, accomplished, and nice people. The Tucson Innovative Home Tour has one of the largest selections of houses of this kind that you can find on such a public tour anywhere.

You can use this page to plan your day. Numbers below correspond to the numbers on the tour guide, so you can select the homes here you would like to visit and easily find them when you get the guide. The tour this year is one day only, Saturday, November 3\, frtom 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Please respect the kindness of the homeowners: do not go early or stay late.
For those of you who have been on the tour before, homes that were on the tour previously are indicated with the most recent year they were, e.g. "HT06."

Remember, there are more houses on the tour than can be meaningfully seen in one day. Choose the ones that most interest you. Take your time and talk with the owners, designers, builders and others. Enjoy your day and help others enjoy it too.

Please be good guests and be very nice to the homeowners. They volunteer their time to share their knowledge and experience with you.

Saturday, November 3: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

(1) Modern urban living
A brand new community of 22 single family environmentally friendly two-story townhomes in the middle of Tucson with striking modern design and amenities by an award-winning architect. Features include solar photovoltaic electricity, solar water heating, passive solar shading, solar tube skylights, rainwater harvesting, xeriscape, community pool with alternative purification system, dual flush toilets, low-e glass windows, energy efficient lighting, new composite siding, blown cellulose insulation, polished colored and scored concrete floors and bamboo flooring.

(2) "The Mod" - a study in prefab
Prefabrication of building in parts is an important advance that promises many benefits in the future, including higher quality at lower cost. This is not a home, but a simple freestanding prototype developed by an architect to demonstrate a variety of concepts. Built completely of inexpensive materials easily obtained at a local building supply store, this 12 ft by 12 ft stand-alone building is located in a back yard and is being used as an home office. Similar units can be grouped together to form a home or other kinds of buildings. You'll have a chance to meet and talk with the designer and builder and discuss new possibilities in buildings.

(3) New homes from Home Tour pioneers
The owners of these homes "retired" to Tucson, learned from the Tucson Innovative Home Tour and associated sources and built their own home, which was featured previously on the tour. Now they are building other homes in their neighborhood with similar innovations. You can see two homes, one completed and occupied, the other under construction. The first is a 2500 sq ft two-story residence using an insulated concrete form (ICF) wall system, solar water heating, high efficiency heat pump, other energy efficient measures, rainwater harvesting, and scored and polished concrete floors. The new house under construction is an 1800 sq ft two-story residence with similar features, plus steel-framing, dual pane low-e glazing, spray-in foam insulation under a steel roof, ceiling fans and a built-in vacuum system.

(4) Santa Rita Park House
The owners of this modest older adobe in a historic district near downtown Tucson have been gradually applying the lessons of sustainability to their home and making good progress. So far they have installed a 1 kW solar photovoltaic system that supplies most of their electricity, a rainwater harvesting system with an 800 gallon cistern that waters their yard, a garden using permaculture principles with contoured topography, fruit trees, other plants and chickens. They use an evaporative cooler rather than AC for cooling, energy efficient lighting, a solar clothes drier and vegetation for shading. They also drive a fuel efficient vehicle that runs on biodiesal. You can learn how to apply these advances to your own home.

(5) Sneak preview of Rio Nuevo
See four brand new homes from four top innovative builders. plus others under construction. Are you curious to see what's going on at Rio Nuevo? Rio Nuevo is Tucson big urban renewal program. Visitors on this year's Tour will be among the first to see one of its first high-profile developments: a unique upscale residential community that draws from traditional southwest Sonoran and Spanish Colonial streetscapes and architecture - with beautiful pedestrian-friendly narrow bending streets, wide sidewalks, small plazas, masonry buildings and native landscaping- plus environmentally friendly sustainable design and New Urbanist elements. It's still under construction (don't bother looking for a street sign), so you will be able to get a special sneak preview of new models, completed houses and also houses under construction. You won't want to miss this one.

(6) Best Planned Community in Arizona Award
First Place Award for Best Planned Community in Arizona from Arizona Planners Association. It is the largest adobe construction project in the State of Arizona. There are a lot of interesting and unique things to see. Two homes will also be open. HT06
  Co-Housing is an intentional community where people join together to buy land, plan the development, own their own house but share in the ownership of land, common buildings and equipment. It makes possible a community experience that has been lost over time in much of America. Also, through joint ownership and sharing, members can have much greater resources than they might by themselves. The members of this particular community share a strong environmental interest and commitment. They are seeking to create “a community in balance with nature.” They have built a residential development of 28 townhouses clustered on 8 acres in a parcel of 43 acres in the Tucson Mountain foothills. It has a pedestrian core with peripheral parking. Features include passive solar design with thermal mass construction using pressed adobe, plus solar water heating. A very special wetlands system treats and recycles all wastewater. Landscape design follows permaculture principles and practices, leaving most of the land in its natural state, roof rainwater catchment flowing into cisterns, vegetated basins and organic gardens, paving of all roads and parking with a permeable surface and many other environmentally sound practices. It also has a 3400 sq ft common house, pool, playgrounds, meditation area and nature trails. They are planning a good welcome on Saturday, so don’t miss it.

(7) Award-winning passive solar design
Beautiful desert home on a hill with extraordinary views. Southern Arizona Energy Award, First Place, Residential, 2000. Featured in the latest issue of the Tucson Weekly, as well as on cover of Solar Today, in the Arizona Daily Star and on HGTV Earth Day special. HT04
  Perched on a small hilltop in the Tucson Mountains, this house reflects its owners' interests in design and technology, as well as aesthetics and lifestyle. Framed in light gauge galvanized steel and wrapped in straw bales, this 3700 sq ft home and 1800 sq ft design studio and garage save around $400 per month in utilities over similar conventional buildings. The living room's 65 ft long glass curtain wall opens to wonderful views, but is carefully designed to also provide warmth from the sun in the winter and shield against the sun's direct heat in the summer. A vacuum tube solar water heater and tankless water heater also can heat the house through hydronic tubing installed in the eight inch thick post-tensioned concrete floor. Two foot thick walls with textured drywall interiors create a nice quiet environment. Synthetic color imbedded finish stucco reduces maintenance and blends into the native colors of the surrounding desert. Outside, there is extensive natural landscaping with a bosque supported by graywater, plus raised bed vegetable gardens.
  This house was featured on the national House & Garden Cable TV Earthweek special.

(8) Stunning Solar powered foothills home of rammed earth, straw bale and adobe
A new rammed earth, straw bale and adobe custom home built by one of Tucson's top custom builders, with photovoltaic system and lots of interesting features. Featured in the Arizona Daily Star's Home section this month. HT05
  The main house, of rammed earth, consists of two buildings, about 1800 sq ft total, enclosing a courtyard. It includes passive solar design, porches, breezeway, ceiling fans, high SEER heat pump, in-floor radiant heating, R-50 ceiling, radiant barriers, whole house fans, non-toxic finishes. The 600 sq ft passive solar straw bale guesthouse has concrete floors and both imperial plaster and mud plaster walls. The garage is built of pressed adobe block. Other features include a solar pv electric power system, rainwater harvesting with 20,000 gallon storage, xeriscape and natural desert.
  The central courtyard garden, created using a professional landscape designer, was featured in the Tucson Botanical Gardens' Home Garden Tour.

(9) Artist's home nestled in the desert
Inspired by the Tucson Innovative Home Tour, this artist collaborated with a builder on a beautiful desert-adapted home that fits in well with its environment. HT06
  Natural, non-toxic and recycled materials, healthy home, energy and water efficient, xeriscape and native landscaping, and solid geometry. In fact, the geometry is unique: imagine a triangular center with circles at each corner. This is a fascinating example of how to build using dome principal and strong triangular structure in an unobtrusive and practical way. They authored a book about their experience, House as Teacher: Building the Future Now. There is a very pleasant bonus to this one: you will also have a chance to see some nice art. This home is about heart and spirit, creativity and art. Featured in the Arizona Daily Star.
  Note: The final mile or so is over a dirt road.

(10) Home on the range for an extended family
These two new homes create an extended family compound. Designed by an award-winning architect whose work has been selected for the Tucson Innovative Home Tour before, they are made of adobe and a new insulating masonry block, E-crete, one of first applications of this in Tucson. HT06
  On the tour last year when it was nearing the end of construction, this beautiful home is back so you can see how things turned out. Located in Avra Valley west of Tucson, the exterior walls are of adobe for thermal mass and the new, light-weight E-crete blocks for added insulation. This is one of the first and most interesting uses of E-crete in Tucson. The design features passive solar, high insulation and high thermal mass for maintaining a very comfortable interior environment with minimal heating and cooling. Drawing from traditional southwest architecture, the design incorporates key elements like a central courtyard, zaguán, and roof terrace to good effect for both beauty and practicality. The homes also have nice modern features like a double-sided fireplace for outdoor living space, exposed colored concrete floors and steel roof trusses. There are also a variety of measures for both energy and water efficiency, including rainwater harvesting and grey-water systems. Architects are concerned with both form and function. Here you will find a marriage of both as a work of art.
  Note: This is accessed via a dirt road.

Please help pass the word ... and bring your family and friends. We look forward to seeing you.

Have fun! See you there!

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