OLLIE’S REPORT: A Living Building

By Olivia M. Perrault

Have you ever heard of a living building?
I hadn’t either, and that’s why I was so excited to visit the new Hitchcock Center! In this short report you will learn what a living building is!

A Living Building:
A living building runs on sun and water. Only natural materials are used in a living building. They are made of wood and a bit of metal. The wood for the building came from local sources like Maine. A living building is solar powered and the roof is slanted, so it acts like a mountain slope. The water that runs down the roof runs into gutters and tanks. The water is stored underground in a tank in case there is a drought. The water is treated and used for drinking and lots of other uses. After the water is used it is returned to the environment. The Hitchcock Center is a net zero energy system, which means that it creates the energy it uses and no energy is wasted. The toilets in the Hitchcock Center are composting toilets! They use only one or two drops of water every time they are flushed. These toilets use much less water than regular toilets, and this is important because water is a precious resource.

I visited the Hitchcock Center last week and had a tour of the new building. It is amazingly beautiful and creative! I can not wait to go there again!

Olivia M. Perrault is 9 years old and currently attends the Hitchcock Center’s Homeschool program. She would like to be an investigative journalist when she grows up.

3 responses to “OLLIE’S REPORT: A Living Building”

Donna says:

October 4, 2016 at 6:36 pm

This is a wonderful story, and very well written! I learned a lot from this interesting, informative article!
Kiki T says:

October 4, 2016 at 6:46 pm

What an interesting and well written article! Thank you.
colleen kelley says:

October 5, 2016 at 11:32 am

Thank you Ollie for doing such a great job reporting on our new building. I would love to have you do more reports of some of our other events if you are interested! Have you ever attended out Enchanted Forest? Maybe you could write something about that- you could get a following of readers!