Project Description
Inspired by the simplicity of New England Colonials, this renovation of an existing house in the San Francisco Bay Area represents a collaborative creative endeavor between the homeowner, designer, architect and contractor. The resulting design encapsulates clean lines, simple detailing and eco-friendly sensibility. Finish selections were pared down to a precisely curated palette, construction details were developed to present an honesty of materials and craft, and systems were selected for sustainability and health. The result is a residence that fully embraces all aspects of healthful, energy and water efficient sustainable design, often going beyond the parameters used to determine its LEED Platinum rating by the USGBC. The homeowner defined clear parameters for both her aesthetic goals and environmental responsibility for all decisions throughout the process. The design criteria included the following: o Balance of order and casualness – The homeowner’s approach to composition in her own artwork is a careful stasis of simple repetitive geometries with subtle variations or interruptions of that pattern. That same approach was taken with the house. The existing house already exhibited some of those characteristics, with a contrast between simple rectangular volumes and irregular spaces. On a detail level, this balance is exhibited in the design for the interior horizontal paneling. It is a pattern composed of four different width board laid out on rules for how different elements were located in relationship to one another. The effect is a quiet, composed order that is balanced by the grain and irregularities of the wood itself. o Refined palette – The client curated a selection of only 12 finish materials, inclusive of both exterior and interior surfaces. o Use of natural materials – Components were selected to highlight their inherent qualities. This choice is epitomized by the use of FSC plain sawn American white oak for all interior surfaces (walls, floors, ceilings, doors and casework). o Integration of design and technical solutions – Given the simplicity of the palette, the client aimed to show honesty of construction. For example, the home owner wished for simple, trimless detailing of all wood surfaces. Given wood’s natural expansion and contraction, corners were detailed with a ¼” reveal that accommodated this movement. That detail then became the primary visual vocabulary for all corners, inside and out. o Craft – Given the minimalist aesthetic, how materials came together was important to highlight. For example, the ¼” reveal allowed one to see the end grain of the oak boards on the interior, revealing the material’s inherent quality as solid and not a veneer. o Consistent design vocabulary – All design elements of the house were treated with conceptual rigor. For example, all rise and run of stairs were made consistent so that the custom wire mesh on inside and outside stairs matched exactly. Railings were made out of stainless steel so that the same elements could be used inside and out. To ensure environmental stewardship, two main strategies were employed: o LEED certification– The design team and their consultants integrated the rigorous requirements of the USGBC into the building of the house so as to achieve LEED Platinum certification. Strategies included the following • An integrated design process, • Planning for durability of materials and construction, • Benefiting from the site’s infill location, • Reduced demand for irrigation, • Rainwater collection from house and hardscape for collection in a 40,000 gallon cistern, • Very high efficiency plumbing fixtures, • Exceptional energy performance rated at 49.5% above California Title 24 requirements, • High efficiency appliances, • Photovoltaic panels for solar power generation, • Efficient framing techniques, • Environmentally preferred products, including all FSC wood products, • And, strong measures to maximize indoor air quality. o Healthy home – The most important goal for the homeowner was to create a healthy, comfortable, beautiful home for her family. She wanted to go above and beyond issues considered in the LEED certification process in terms of exposure to toxins. It was imperative that the interior and exterior of the home were constructed without the use of harmful chemicals so as to ensure a healthy living environment. Each and every building product used in construction of the house was screened for a comprehensive list of 900+ chemicals of concern. This list includes: Perkins & Will’s precautionary list, Living Building Challenge Red List, European Union list of hazardous chemicals (REACH), CA Prop 65, and others. For example, as a result, stainless steel was used as a substitution for brass in plumbing fixtures so as to eliminate exposure to lead, plus formaldehyde-free plywood was used as a substitution for standard plywood in both structural uses and casework so as to eliminate exposure to the VOCs from the glues. Besides chemical risks, exposure to EMF and RF waves was minimized through construction techniques. Following the same precedent set for the interior, there were no synthetic chemicals of any kind used in the landscaping practices. The goal was to work with the natural ecosystem of the property to produce an organic, edible, low water use and aesthetically beautiful garden. Envisioned by the owner as a home that she and her young family would enjoy for years to come, she applied her finely tuned sensibilities as an artist to create an aesthetic that embodied a delicate balance between order and casualness, with an emphasis on beauty. The House for an Artist emulates the perfect union between beauty and sustainability, which goes well beyond healthful living for a single-family residence.