Introduction: The Sustainable, Alaskan Home!
Hi I'm Valentina, I am the creator of this sustainable biome home. I thought this would be a cool project to share with all of you. I made this project because it's a very good hands on activity and it will give you something to do. The purpose of this project was to show what sustainable homes are and how they can be different from each other depending on the biome. My house was specifically designed for the Alpine, Tundra, which is at the top of mountains. I picked the alpine tundra in Alaska, so it's pretty cold there year round.
Supplies
For this project you will need card board, plastic (I used plastic bottles; sprite bottle, sweet tea bottle), a hand saw, tubes, box-cuter knife, aluminum foil, thumb tack, duct tape, ruler, pencil, small led string lights, plaster board, hot glue gun, a small cup/ barrel, tubes, garland, . Those are the supplies you will be needing. Obviously it is perfectly fine if you use something different than me or if you change it up!
Step 1: What Is a Biome?
Now I'm going to explain what a biome is so you're not lost! A biome is a collection of fauna and flora. (plants and animals) For them to be able to live and exist in this environment they will have common characteristics. They are found many places. These biomes are adapted to this climate. These are the five major types of biomes; tundra, grassland, desert, aquatic, and forest. My specific biome as I said before is the alpine, tundra. The temperature there is ranged between -25 and -50 degrees, pretty cold! It receives over 100 inches of precipitation a year. Most of it snow though. Considering the circumstances that my home is located in I had to make the design/model adapted to this environment. I believe that it is important to make your house sustainable because it helps the ecosystem and environment that you are building your house in. My home is located in Yakutat, Alaska, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve; Saint Elias Mountain range. The coordinates are 58.91 N 137.53 W.
Step 2: How I Designed My Home.
I designed my home by making many sketches and designs of how I wanted it to look. I had probably made about 4 sketches. If your home doesn't look like your design that is alright, things change. When I made my home it did not match my design pretty much at all. What I planned wasn't gonna work so I had to make something different and at the end it worked out!
Step 3: Get All Your Supplies.
First you want to get all of your supplies and lay them out where ever you're building your home. Then you want to start making marks on your plaster board of where you want to cut. Make sure to use a ruler to make sure your lines are straight and mostly precise. Now that you have marked it you can start cutting. Once you have cut all the sides you can keep them there because now you will be making windows. This part is tricky, you have to be very precise of where you're cutting. Since it is in the middle of the piece you just cut. If you need help cutting or want it to be more precise then I would ask someone so that the cut comes out cleaner! When you finish cutting the windows out, you can now grab your plastic bottle and try to make an estimate of how big the cut in the bottle should be so that it fits in your window. This is when you will need the box-cuter knife or whatever knife is available for you to use, just make sure it is sharp enough to cut through. After you do that you will need to glue the piece of plastic to your window.
Step 4: Make the Door and Attach It.
To make the door you will need the hand saw again. I chose to spray paint the door and shutters of the windows because it would add some color. After the door is cut you can spray paint it if you'd like. Now you're gonna put the door in the frame and to hold it there I put a little dot of hot glue in the corner to hold it up I also used some tape. Then you're gonna want to leave that tape there. It should only go on one side and it shouldn't go to far across the door. The door will most likely not open all the way but that is okay. Then see if it works, it may take a few try's for it to work. Then you can put a thumbtack in the door to represent a door knob. I spray painted it to look like the color of the door.
Step 5: Time for the Lights
Now that the door is finished you can start putting the lights inside the house. For this you will need a couple thumb tacks, a hot glue gun and the lights. Put one thumb tack on the door side of the house (the front) and then put 1-2 thumb tacks on the other sides of the house. Then before you put the lights on I would suggest hot gluing the thumbtacks in so they don't brake or fall. However many you think you'll need depending on how long your lights are. If they are long like mine were then you can loop them on the thumb tacks so they're shorter. Then once they're on you can tug on the droopy parts a little bit so that the lights aren't so tight and the light illuminates the whole inside of the house.
Step 6: Building the Roof.
Now this is where the cardboard will come in handy, and a lot of hot glue! This a tip for making your roof mostly even. I would suggest cutting the pieces of cardboard of a box. For example a amazon box. For this you may need help. Now put those two pieces of cardboard together and line them up as best as you can. Once you have done that you will want to glue the under side of the cardboard together. Once that is glued you can then glue the the card board to the house. Once you have done that you can glue the top of the cardboard together. Then for the sides of the roof I used parchment paper because measuring plastic or cardboard to fit good and be precise is difficult, and it can also be used as another way of getting light in your house. Line the parchment paper up up and then trace it where it fits with cardboard. then cut it with scissors and line the parchment paper up again. When you have lined it up right you will want to start gluing the parchment paper to the cardboard. This will take a few try's for it to stand up and work, but don't worry mistakes are good. I made many through out this! Then when the top of the parchment paper is glued to the top you can glue the sides then the bottom and you will do the same to the back side.
Step 7: Solar Panels and the Chimney
Now for the solar panels you will need more cardboard. The solar panels do not need to be to big. I fit 5 on each side, 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom. Try to make them roughly the same size. In total you will need "10 solar panels". Then when you have glued those on each side you can now put aluminum foil on them because it will make it look like the sun is reflecting off of them to make them more realistic. Grab a piece of aluminum foil and crease it over the solar panel. Then you will need to cut that shape out. After you have cut that you can glue it onto the solar panel. You will need to do that for all of them. To make the chimney you will need a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll whatever you have will work. You will want to cut and angle it so the "chimney" will sit right on the roof. To add some color I would suggest spray painting the chimney. You can use any color. I used a dark-ish brown color so it won't match the color of the cardboard. Once that is dry you can glue it to the roof. To make it look more real and so that people would know what it was I ripped a few pieces of paper and spray painted it silver to make it look like smoke. Then you can glue those on to the inside of the chimney.
Step 8: Making and Spray Painting Shutters.
To make the shutters you will need duct tape and spray paint. Make a thick line of the duct tape, you will need 2 four pieces of tape in total for one side and same for the other side of the house. Then once you have put the duct tape on the house you can start spray painting, be careful you don't get spray paint on the house or window! Then when you have finished doing that you can remove the tape once the spray paint dry's. Don't forget to do that to the other side of the house. Once you finish you can move onto the next step.
Step 9: Make Your Shed and Water Catcher.
First you will need more card board for the shed. The shed doesn't have to be that big. You will need four pieces of cardboard all in the same shape or close to it. The roof is flat because you will need to cut a hole in the middle of it to fit the tube which I will explain what I mean by that after. Then grab your tube and put it on the cardboard and draw a circle around it so you know where you're cutting. Then cut it out and see if the tube fits. Now you can glue the sides together and the roof to make the shed. Then put that aside for a few. Now, get a sprite bottle and cut the cap side of it off, that will act as a funnel. Then get a piece of cardboard and glue it to the bottle close to the cap. Once you have done that you will need the shed, the funnel and tube. Put the tube inside the funnel and put it up as far as the beginning of the cap part and keep it there. Then put the tube through the roof and through the hole you just made for it. Now measure how much you will need to cut off of the tube so that it fits inside the shed and make sure there is still room inside of it. Once you have cut it to the right spot you can glue the tube into the funnel. You may need to adjust the shed at first to get the tube in the hole but once you do you can put it against the side of the house. Make sure you glue the funnel part against the house and under the roof so it catches the water that falls off.
Step 10: Decoration Time!
This is the final step to making your home! If you don't want your house to look to boring then I would suggest adding some decorations or accessories. Since most people are drawn to the front of the house, you would most likely want to add something right there. You could add a piece of garland since Christmas wasn't that long ago or you could draw something to put there. Anything you want can go there! It's your design, be creative there are no limits! I wanted my home to have a country look so I added a piece of garland that didn't have any colorful things or sparkles on it, then glue it on. When you finish that you're done!
Step 11: The Conclusion!
For this conclusion I'm gonna give some background information on what sustainable things I have incorporated in my home. For light I am going to use the lights I have already put into the project/home, I am also using fire for light. I will get lamps and put the candle in it and I will use that for light also. I have used reusable materials. Instead of wasting them and throwing them away I used them to make the house. Those are only a few of the many sustainable aspects I have added to my home. Through out this project I've learned about what a sustainable home is and what a biome is. Before this I didn't know much about either of these, but since I've done this I know much more. I learned that a sustainable home is a building that is eco-friendly and I also learned that a biome is a large place that is characterized by flora and fauna. There also many different types of biomes. If I had planned better in my head and on paper then I probably would have been able to come up with a better design and build but for now what I have came up with isn't bad. If you read through this then I would like to thank you! This is my first instructable and I hope it was okay, so thank you!
