Transforming an old XNUMXth century Salento farmhouse into a green, eco-sustainable, self-sufficient farmhouse full of all modern comforts. It is the dream, which has come true, of two famous stars of American cinema, who came from Hollywood to Salento to give life to their zero-impact project.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Transform a old Salento farmhouse of the sixteenth century in one green, eco-sustainable, self-sufficient farm and full of all modern comforts. It is the dream, which has come true, of two famous stars of American cinema, who came from Hollywood to Salento to give life to their zero impact project.
He is Taylor Hackford, Californian director of many cult films, she is Helen Mirren, the British actress, Oscar winner for “The Queen”.
The couple decided to buy an old farmhouse in the province of Lecce to recover its structure and enhance it following the principles of eco-sustainability, efficiency and energy saving. In short: a typical and traditional house, but in a green version.
To put the ambitious project into practice was the Energy Resources, which has recovered the building, to bring it aesthetically back to its ancient sixteenth-century splendor, and completely transform it from a structural and energy point of view, making it efficient and sustainable, without giving up the needs and comforts of everyday life.
Some examples?
THEelectric energy is provided thanks to the realization of two photovoltaic systems, each of which has a power of 20 kW. The first is found on a photovoltaic shelter, used as a canopy for the private parking of the house and covered with the typical Lecce stone; the second is instead a plant built on the ground which uses solar trackers: it is located 250 meters from the house and blends in perfectly with the surrounding landscape, thanks to a rich and dense vegetation capable of hiding the structure.
Il heating winter and the supply of fresh air in summer are instead managed by a modern built system under the floor, which uses thegeothermal energy. With a power of 23 kW, the plant is able to use the temperature of the subsoil and bring it into the house through some probes installed in the ground. To hide the 28 probes (which act as heat exchangers, releasing hot air and taking fresh air) the land has been enriched with a pomegranate orchard, a local plant very popular in the United States.
And that's not all, because - to guarantee a cool temperature even in the hot days of the Salento summer - a sistema “active pooling”, with about twenty convectors.
THEhot water bathrooms and kitchens, on the other hand, are supplied - as well as by geothermal and solar thermal systems - also by a six solar panels, installed on a cover, capable of feeding a tank of over 1000 liters.
Not bad for a house capable of bringing together clean energy and tradition in a land where the combination is increasingly a source of conflicts.
Verdiana Amorosi
