Renovating the Integral Urban House, at 1516 Fifth Street in West Berkeley, was not an easy feat. It required massive amounts of time and effort from the members of the Farallones Institute. In this photo, you can see the lush garden filling the backyard space, with the fish pond at the lower right hand of the picture. These were brought in to begin establishing themselves, so that by the time the house was complete, the residents could immediately start harvesting and “living off the land.”
The house itself, in the background, retains the same overall structure with some slight modifications. For example, they built more south-facing windows to take in more sunlight and naturally warm the house during the day. A composting toilet, or “clivus multrum” was installed beneath the house.
Despite a very conventional façade, the ideas and experiments at the Integral Urban House were anything but conventional.
