The imperative to radically decarbonize how we live (and reduce other non-renewable resource use) could not be more clear or urgent. Energy consumption - the primary nexus of carbon production - is conventionally divided into 3 or 4 standard categories: residential, transportation, and commercial/industrial.
Of these, we can influence the commercial/industrial sector indirectly as consumers to some degree, but it is limited: the marketplace rarely offers carbon-competitive alternatives. In transportation, we can take very direct action on a substantial portion of the problem: by embracing low-carbon options like walking, biking, mass transit or choosing electric over ICE vehicles our personal contribution can be reduced.
We also can effect significant change in decarbonizing our homes and how we live in them, but these efforts can be more difficult to define, perform, measure the impact of, etc. For example, we may not own a home long enough to realize the full benefit of a 'deep energy retrofit', and the resale value might not recapture the balance. Beyond simple weatherization, it is often unclear how best to proceed with limited resources in existing homes.
A different, possibly more tractable, set of considerations arise when building a new home. Even though uncertainties exist (future cost of fuel, maturity of tech, etc), many basic questions can be addressed through established building science, energy modeling software, etc. We are still left with the fundamental question: what is a sustainable home? We will explore answers to this question by defining the 'reactive house', and its principles of operation. In addition, we will examine whether current building practice, culture and technology has the ability to realize such a conception.