Finding a way to the green

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When Michelle Kaufmann designed her home in 2002, she never thought it would end up being replicated in the National Building Museum in Northwest.

She and her husband, Kevin Cullen, decided to follow the principles of sustainable design or "green building," which provides for the least negative impact on the environment and the healthiest living space possible. She is an architect and owns Michelle Kaufmann Designs in San Francisco.

Friends liked her home, called the Glidehouse, so much that they asked for homes like it. Eventually, Ms. Kaufmann arranged to have the house mass-produced.

Through June 3, part of her home is replicated in "The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design" at the National Building Museum.

"I hope what people will take away is that there are easy ways that one can make their own environment more Earth friendly," Ms. Kaufmann says. "The home doesn't have to be some crunchy granola hippy straw-bale house in California. It also doesn't have to be something that is financially out of one's reach. Green can be affordable and well-designed."

Going green doesn't have to mean going weird, agrees Donald Albrecht, lead curator of the exhibit. The average homeowner doesn't need to live in a house made of tires because he or she wants to do something sustainable for the environment, he says.

"In the '70s, they wanted to let you know when you drove by their house they are green and going back to the earth," Mr. Albrecht says. "The need for propaganda isn't necessary anymore."

On average, the cost of the Glidehouse is $132 per square foot for a house on a level lot, according to the National Building Museum exhibit.

A one-bedroom house is 672 square feet. A four-bedroom house is up to 2,255 square feet. For most Glidehouse variations, that converts to about $200,000 per house, $83,000 less than the average cost of an American home in 2005, according to the exhibit.

"Sustainability can be affordable," Ms. Kaufmann says. "It's a matter of making certain choices."