The House
EcoCasa Vieques – A Sustainable Vacation Villa
For many years the US Navy occupied Vieques and when they left the island in 2003, developers were lined up to build all-inclusive resort and time share condo complexes so common in other parts of the Caribbean. Fortunately, the Navy left large parts of the island, both the east and west ends where many of the beautiful beaches are located, beaches that are commonly listed among the top beaches in the Caribbean for their azure waters and white sands, in a National Wildlife Preserve, preventing the over development that has occurred elsewhere in the Caribbean.
In keeping with the goal of conserving a sustainable paradise, we have spent the last six years transforming an existing derelict and abandoned structure to make EcoCasa, Vieques, a near carbon neutral vacation site that re-knits this small portion of Marapo / entry to the Bravos neighborhood adjacent to the ferry, to support our local Viequesnse trades, craftsman, population, and other building related industries.
The house was designed by Mark deShong after spending substantial time on the island and becoming a local resident. The project was engineered by Paul Small, a resident of Vieques for over 30 years, and built by Ben Elliott construction with his 12 Viequense employees. Chase Jazzborne a Viequense resident has been the chief designer technician for the applied environmental systems. Local inspection services were also employed by Paul Lutton.
Overall site approach: EcoCasa has been configured through the transformation and rebuilding of an existing abandoned and derilect property to avoid gentrification. The villa is self-shading, uses deep recessed loggias for shaded lounging, special ventilating solar glazing, conc window overhangs to shade, with additional sun canopies to temper the harsh southern sun rays. The roof surfaces are all light-white treated to reflect / deflect solar rays, thereby reducing heat island affect and heat gain. The ground surfaces are for the most part permeable, gravel or oxygen producing low water use sustainably planted gardens to allow the rainwater to naturally percolate and re-hydrate land, sub-surfaces, and local aquifers.
Solar Energy
Sun is the greatest natural feature which can be harnessed in this Caribbean region. From its inception EcoCasa Vieques was designed to take advantage of the continual strong solar energy potential available in the Caribbean. More than 80% of our electricity is provided by the solar photovoltaic panels that continually power the lights, fans, electric outlets, appliances, hot water heaters. etc.
While we have incorporated an array of 14 very large photovoltaic panels, a sophisticated inverter, lithium batteries, all without visibility, and have solar capacity to power sustainable life at EcoCasa; the panels are not robust enough to run the much more consumptive AC units. We encourage life w/o AC, but have AC units throughout all the spaces which are connected to the island electric grid, to allow for their use in extreme heat and humidity.
An exterior Solar Hot Water shower is provided in an accessible location for all resident use . The large 2 panel solar panels and 80 gallon hot water storage tank mounted on the rear Casita roof provide systematized and dependable hot water for the complex.
Natural Ventilation
Owner Mark is a retired architect with extensive experience in international projects involving cutting edge energy efficient technology. He has taught in the Design of the Environment program at UPenn, worked with leading high profile environmental designers, and used some of his knowledge to design this house with natural air flow for cooling.
The EcoCasa design attempts to saddle bag shaded space on each side of the ground floor building, breezeways, and works with the prevailing Caribbean wind patterns to create convection cooling on either side of the ground floor, increasing airflow and cross ventilation to eliminate or reduce the need for AC.
The upper second floor also takes advantage of local wind patterns and provides a centrally located circular stair opening headhouse to provide a natural ventilation stack on the upper floor . Convection air currents then supplement the breezy removal of uncomfortable warmer air and provide constant cool air movement and evaporative cooling for enhanced human comfort.
Rainwater
We have installed bladder and pipes cisterns on roofs in two locations and one ground location to strategically collect the roof and building rainwater, which can be used to clean the facility, water the mostly sustainable gardens. In an emergency, this water can also be used, with purification tablets, to provide limited clean drinking water to insure survival in unforeseen weather, seasonal island circumstance and emergency conditions.
Local Craftsmen and Local Materials
When constructing the EcoCasa, we have worked entirely with local craftsmen and for the most part almost all local materials. Our construction group on Vieques used exclusively the local concrete batching plant, and also local sand and stone for miscellaneous concrete and all of the plaster. EcoCasa local workmen are skilled at pouring and finishing concrete (the indigenous building material in resisting solar conditions and extreme hurricane weather).
Additionally, as the warm humid climate is conducive to termites, we have eliminated wood wherever possible. We hired a local metal worker to design and fabricate the metal fences and doors and a local solar engineer to design and supply the solar panel electrical system.The appliances and most furnishings were purchased from local businesses the plantings were purchased locally and installed by island contractors. The appliances and fixtures which were all procured through a local (Vieques) vendors are all Energy Star or water efficient fixtures. Every habitable space contains a controllable fan, lighting. Exterior light fixtures are all hooded to prevent light pollution.
The use of concrete as an appropriate ‘on island’ building material with extremely skilled local craftsman facilitated the fabrication of polished concrete bathroom vanities, kitchens, bed and sofa supports in with locally produced Sunbrella covered cushions, bolsters, and specialty thick bed mattresses providing and ensuring comfort. Moveable ottomans and other features provide the flexibility to self-design social arrangements within the house.
Laundry and Sheets
Washers and dryers have been installed for your convenience, but we hope that you will use the clothes lines and pins to air dry you clothes, when possible, and we have supplied laundry detergent sheets to avoid single use plastics. The sheets are %100 organic cotton. They are dried naturally and not ironed to reduce the use of electricity.
Cleaning Materials
We are committed to using green cleaning products that are created using safe, non-toxic and biodegradable ingredients, when possible. We also avoid getting products in single use plastic-bottles but buy in bulk and refill smaller containers.
Paper Products
To reduce our carbon footprint we buy toilet paper and paper towels that are made from recycled paper. And provide Papaya reusable wiped that can be cleaned in the dishwasher for kitchen and bathroom spills.
Artwork and Furnishings
In decorating we have used local artist and stores in support of the Vieques economy.