Wednesday, May 11, 2011

World's Greenest Homes

World's Greenest Homes series 1 was produced by Cineflix in 2008.  Every episode shows two, supposedly ecological, homes. I wrote supposedly, because you cannot seriously think that 400-700 square meter mansions for 2-5 people are ecological. It doesn't matter that you put concrete floors with garbage in them, or fill your walls with old newspapers, or use old furniture, or use rain water to flush toilets - you are still building a palace!


The host Emmanuel Belliveau is trying hard to find something ecological about those homes, but sometimes it feels like dual flush toilets or double-pane windows make your house "world's greenest".  


Most of the homes presented are in North America. With a few exceptions, they are huge, and they don't belong in this series. The homes that are in the UK, Sweden, Netherlands or Australia show more constraint, and generally are much more interesting.