No place for an all-glass addition? Time for “Peapod Light!”

Image: Plants inside Conventional House
Image Credit: MS Office ClipArt: House silhouette and tree design

Peapod Life: Beyond traditional hydroponics, Peapod Life is a living and breathing addition to your home. The custom designed items are multipurpose: it's a usable living space, a living wall and window garden, a source for solar power and a method for collecting rainwater. Essentially, you create your very own mini-ecosystem yielding edible, medicinal, fragrant and ornamental plants tailored to your lifestyle.
Green Benefit: locally-sourced organic food, a reduction in electricity and water consumption
Cost: Peapod Life costs about the same as a comparably-sized standard edition.
Corporate Knights: Guest Post: Best of Green Living Show 2012 by Erin Poeta

Recently we were asked if the Peapod Life concept could be integrated with a more conventional building method rather than a complete glass enclosure.

It’s a good question, since an all-glass aesthetic may not always work; whether due to the application required, lot layout, and many other factors.

Still, the short answer is yes. With some adjustments, we can build a kind of “Peapod Light” into just about any conventional building.

To quickly recap, Peapod Life integrates energy generation and conservation with efficient use of natural resources in closed-loop systems to enable food production.

The Peapod Life is easily achieved with an all-glass design. A non-glass design simply limits the size of the ecosystem, the amount of plant material which can be grown inside, and ultimately the quantity of food the system can produce.

So the fundamentals of Peapod Life are still intact; just downsized.

• A living wall is key for better air quality and the indoor/outdoor lifestyle experience living with your plants. The living wall can support food plants as well as ornamentals.
• With this approach we still recommend at least 50% windows and skylights to maximize sunlight exposure. Thus, natural ventilation and natural lighting are maintained.
• Humidity control, which was easier in the full glass construction, dictates that the walls be treated more like bathroom walls. Some materials, such as hardwood flooring, will not be used due to moisture movements.
• Other green elements, such as rainwater collection and solar collectors should still be considered to maintain the essence of Peapod Life.

Your property may not be able to support an all-glass Peapod Life addition; but as design and build contractors specializing in additions and major renovations, we are confident we can give you the best Peapod Light experience possible, no matter what the constraints of the building project.

Martina Ernst
President/CEO
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

Check other articles about livable and sustainable design for future:
A New Construction Paradigm for Buildings
Indoor Landscapes: Companies See the Light of a whole New Level of "wow, cool!"
Combining Old and New Technology - The New Paradigm for Building?