The Florida House Institute: A Flagship of Sustainability

By Octavia Saenz

Sarasota Scene is pleased to publish articles written by students at Ringling College of Art and Design. This is part of a collaborative program with creative writing instructor Sylvia Whitman to provide real life experiences to her students, many of whom will undoubtedly be our writers of tomorrow!  

Hidden away to the north of Sarasota sits a house of the future—futuristic not because of any flashy bells and whistles, but for its eye toward the environmental future. With almost too many sustainable technology features to list, the Florida House Institute is a snapshot of what our homes need to look like for the coming climate crises. Their mission: to educate local homeowners and families on how and why these techniques and technologies are so important to the survival of our species, with workshops and tours for the community as well as for elementary, middle, and high school students from all over Sarasota.

In addition to the wealth of informational resources, the house, itself, is constructed to be the flagship example of an ideal sustainable home, boasting an all-solar energy source, innovative insulation and ventilation solutions, sustainable materials such as cork and Florida palm flooring, bamboo cabinets, and tiles made of recycled windshield glass. My favorite feature, though, is the permaculture garden, which serves as a food source.

It was from that permaculture garden that one of my hosts, Vicki Chelf, served me and a group of guests the greatest salad I’ve ever had. No, really, I’m ruined on all other salads. Have you ever liked a salad so much that you go back for seconds? Me either, at least not until this one.

It’s at this moment I decide I want to live here. I say so, to a chorus of appreciative laughter.

The House’s kitchen is a small nook—designed mainly for entertaining rather than making daily meals— just feet away from the patio door that leads to the garden, and connected by a short hallway to the laundry room, where I’m surprised to find both a dryer and a stationary bicycle. Our guide, John Lambie, explains the bike is hooked up to a converter to turn human power into electricity, which is used to demonstrate how a sustainable house might use supplemental power when solar isn’t enough.

“It’s just for show,” says Lambie. “We don’t use the dryer here, pretty much ever.”

Panels around the laundry room explain the need for electricity, and all of them center around the House’s wattage meter. The Florida House makes all of the electricity it uses from solar power.

“We actually make more than we need,” says Lambie, “we just got a check from FPL for $90.”

And though the kitchen, presentation room, office, and patio are all gorgeously designed by Terry Osborne and John Lambie—who met each other at a workshop run by Buckminster Fuller—the house is hard to separate from its more educational aspects. The lone bedroom feels like a showroom for alternative lighting devices, and the door built into the wall to lead into a demo of how the House’s wiring works, while having a sort of James Bond appeal to it, is nonetheless a reminder that it’s not meant to be a living space but an educational one.

Undeterred, I continue touring the House pretending I live there. I spend the most time in the garden, where native trees grow surrounded by rings of edible vegetables and flowers, all selected to grow together in harmony—each plant providing something for its neighbors, be it pest control or soil balance. Among them, the star of today’s salad: malabar spinach, a vine from Southeast Asia with leaves thick enough to hold up to the Florida summer heat. Two other kinds of spinach, and katuk, another tasty and nutritious green, join the malabar spinach, along with a dozen pollinator attractors such as milkweed.

Lambie tells us how a lot of Florida was drained of water to make space for housing, which is why flooding is such a problem, and why the Florida House sits over a divot in the ground, the edges of the property raised around it so that all floodwater drains under the house. He calls it the “puddle under the patio,” and all of that water is collected and used, with the added benefit that controlling the water seepage maintains nitrogen levels in the soil and surrounding aquifers—nitrogen being an important factor in the growth of the infamous red tide algae.

There are insurance benefits to protecting a house from flooding, Lambie explains, but by then I’ve wandered over to the side of the House, where a lovely piece of façade hides a water collection tank. Underneath, a space has been carved out to show the elevation of the House, where tours for younger kids go underneath to talk about insulation and foundations.

It’s going to be many years before I can start thinking of buying a house of my own. But for right now, as I stand in a breeze that smells just like that wonderful salad, and tune out the conversation, I can really imagine turning whatever house I get into one like this. One that’s not only beautiful, and comfortable, but also self-sufficient. Sustainable. Perhaps not as educational—though I’m sure I’ll find myself bragging to my neighbors all the same.

Tours for the Florida House Institute are currently on hiatus. Call 941-924-2050 or visit them at 4454 South Beneva Road.

Cool Your House Sustainably

• Replace Your Windows: bad insulation around windows and the wrong kind of glass can let in heat from outside, increasing your cooling needs. The Florida House uses a special urban glass that reflects heat up to 85% and, bonus, deadens sounds from outside.
• Re-Insulate Your Roof: even a simple foam spray can make all the difference in keeping cool air in and the sun’s heat out.
• Switch to LED Lightbulbs: incandescent bulbs convert electricity into around 90% heat for 10% light. Fluorescent bulbs improve on that, but not entirely. LED lightbulbs, however, only waste 15% of the electric energy they use as heat, and the rest is light.

John Lambie recommends that only after following these steps should you replace your AC to cool your house. Otherwise, you might end up with a unit too large for your space, which will struggle to dehumidify it—and drain your wallet on the electric bill.