For the Birds: A Healthy Home in New Mexico

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Building biology principles

Baubiologie, or building biology, was a key component in Bonnie McGowan’s home.

Principles include:
■ Design for natural climate control and minimal need for mechanical intervention
■ Local materials and artisans
■ Electromagnetic field safety
■ Use of natural, nontoxic materials that create healthy indoor climate through natural humidity control, elimination of static electricity and natural ion balancez
■ Natural heating and cooling
■ Extensive daylighting and cross-ventilation
■ Color in accordance with nature 

A chat with the homeowner

What’s your favorite way to pass a snowy day? 

Bonnie McGowan: Curling up with a good book, music and a glass of wine in front of a roaring fire in my Tulikivi while watching the snow collect on the surrounding pine trees.

What was the most challenging aspect of building the house?

Bonnie: During the design phase, selecting the location on the land and working on the design to take advantage of passive solar, active solar and the views. Another challenge was the length of the construction time (18 months from start to finish) required, given the long winters and the drying time natural building materials require.

What was the lowest moment of the design and building process?

Bonnie: Trying to coordinate all the colors using natural materials like slates, travertine, woods and pigments because natural materials change depending on age, location and where they were mined. I would select from the samples, and then when my order would arrive, the colors and textures were often extremely different than the samples I had liked.

If you could invite anyone to dinner, who would it be?

Bonnie: I like to invite prospective community members because my home is a venue for explaining, through experience, the benefits of the ecological way of life I envision in the community.  My home is often their first experience of an ecological, natural home, and I hope to inspire them to build such a home for themselves within the community. 

Paula Baker-Laporte is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a certified Building Biologist. She is the primary author of Prescriptions for a Healthy House
(New Society Publishers, 2001), and co-author of EcoNest (Gibbs Smith, 2005). 

The good stuff

Architect: Baker-Laporte and Associates, (505) 989-1813, paula@bakerlaporte.com
Builder: Timber-frame and clay-straw shell by EcoNest Building Company, (505) 989-1813, robert@econest.com
General contractor: Prull and Associates, (505) 438-8005
Community contact: Birds of a Feather, Bonnie McGowan, (505) 757-2901, www.birdsofafeather.com
House size (square footage): 2,325 square feet plus 460-square-foot guest house
Bedrooms: 2 (main house); studio (guest house)
Bathrooms: 2 (main house); 1 (guest house)

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