Dan's House

 

I designed my friend Dan a house recently. This is a quick, one day design based on the earthship concept but entirely different too.
The entrance to the house is through a patio garden on the southwest (front) of the kitchen. The entrance features a distinctive gate set into garden walls and extra layers of shading on the portal to encourage summer dining on the patio. To the side of this garden is a small pathway which passes in front of the central greenhouse and its forward coldframe to a private outdoor deck for the master bedroom. The vertical-wall greenhouse DOES NOT OPEN TO THE HOUSE! Instead, it has a black hot water wall between the house and the the greenhouse (not visible from the living area) with windows above.

I bermed the north side 4' so I could bury water catchments and have constant temperatures there, and  built what appears to be a sunken patio (but is in fact on the same level plane as the rest of the house) on the north central section and framed views with a built-in bench and fireplace. I also drained that area so I could capture the most amount of snow possible for the catchment system.
The kitchen has a large storage area (8'x15') on the north side (also for the great temps and humidity) with small high windows above and to the outside for ventilation and natural light. The kitchen is open, with an island prep area that could also house the stove or sink depending on preference. The built-in breakfast area can also serve as a desk or a dining room table, with comfortable seating for 6.
The living room is entirely open with a fireplace. On either side of the fireplace are built-in bookshelves. The bedroom on the east has its own patio, which could easily be made totally private with the installation of a partial-height garden wall. It would also be a good place to add a outdoor shower. The bed is inset into a bay window so that nightstands are built-in with bookshelves to the sides and windows above. The fireplace in the bedroom is in front of the bed, also with bookshelves on either side. A large closet opens at a 45 degree angle to the north, as does the bathroom which could be elevated if needed for ease of installation of the cistern. There is a small patio outside this bath as well. An open shower allows this space to connect to the outdoors yet again, and since it is in the northeast with the graywater, catchment and cistern systems (below) minimizes the amount of plumbing required.
The house has a green roof planted with desert plants which reaches all the way down to the bermed area on the north, so the planted roof can be seemless with the ground, hopefully encouraging natural use of the structure by animals and insects, and the intermingling of plants as they seed. It is entirely feasible to add a earth-cooled ductwork system for natural cooling behind this wall.
As you may be able to see, I believe in creating spaces that can be opened up to be literally inside/outside at the same time, but that are totally naturally lit and ventillated too. I want, even in the throes of winter, to be warm, and to feel like I am one with the world around me. At Archinia, we find our greatest happiness when multiple utilities can be served by one material or design philosophy...
Thanks for checking this out. I hope this inspires you to create YOUR perfect oasis!!

Greenwashing in Design

One of the major problems I am having of late is the AMAZING amount of greenwashing that many architectural designers are doing to their product so people think they are getting green design when in fact, there's nothing green about it.

I will fight against this practice, and I'll give you tips and tricks to avoid it yourself.

First and foremost, let ZERO-E die. These houses start at $225 per square foot and they are NOT well designed. They work as long as they stay sealed. If you like the feel of a fresh breeze against your skin, forget about it.. these houses don't work with the windows open.

Second, if your designer cannot get beyond a double-frame wall and/or rigid insulation board, walk away. A double frame wall requires so much wood and the attachments to make it all stay together that you use up to 4x the amount of material than a simple vernacular designed house.There are simple earth-friendly walls that don't rely on rigid insulation (a petroleum product) or extensive materials. GO NATURAL!!!

And, finally... a sidenote - most houses don't take into account sound transmission, or STC Its something worth knowing about. And there's a cheap way to accomplish it - start saving anything cotton or denim for the walls around your bathroom, and for the walls around bedrooms. Stuff the fabric between these frame in these places for better insulation and sound reduction.

Kin Domain Design 101

A sample so you can see the process for establishing site design criteria, based on an ecological settlement in Taos, New Mexico. This works anywhere in the northern hemisphere. For SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE guidelines, flip the chart horizontally so north and south are reversed, but leave east and west the same.

First, draw 2 lines perpendicular to each other so you have a compass.

Then show the direction of the cold winter wind and the hot summer wind.

In Taos, the winter winds come from the NORTH, and the summer winds from the WEST across the vast hot desert. That makes the winds VERY hot and dry. This means that we don't want to open that side up any more than possible, should minimize openings there (to reduce both wind and solar concerns), and we should always open the EAST and NORTH windows so the natural wind pressure and direction will pull hot air out of our house naturally.

Then, we add the details... In the US, rain almost always comes from the EAST. We know that the sun is always in the SOUTH, so that's where was want to put deciduous trees and shading devices to help cool the house in summer. If we use deciduous trees or even flowering and fruiting trees like an orchard, we know that the shade will work only in the summer when it is needed. During the winter though, birds and animals can play in the naked tree branches and the sun can penetrate all the way to the house and allow for passive solar heating.
We know that the snow comes from the NORTH and EAST and that the NORTH side of the house is always shaded. So we want to drain our roofs to that northeast corner, and plant a nice grove of trees - and here we can use a bit more water loving trees since we have a natural advantage here. We can also put plants that need a bit more water here.

If we feel really ambitious, we can collect the water in the NORTHEAST corner, and a NORTH berm would also be an awesome addition, so we could keep the cold north winds off our walls, bury the catchment tanks, and keep the interior of those north walls closer to the natural earth temperature of 56 degrees. That will help keep the house cool in summer and not require so much heating in winter.
We can plant tender plants  - ones that may need a bit of shade and some protection from the wind - on the EAST.
That leaves the SOUTH and WEST for zeriscape drought, wind and heat-tolerant species.
Because our prettiest flowers and the coolest winds will be on the EAST, that's where we'll put the front door. Or... our master bedroom patio. We might put the front door on the southeast somehow then. That'll let us use the sun to our advantage when it snows too - this place will be the first warmed by the sun. if we use a dark-colored mass like stained concrete, we can encourage the sun to clear away the snow from the walk naturally.
We also know that we'd love to put the garage on the WEST and put small windows on its NORTH wall, and as low as possible. In a perfect world, we'll have small windows in the EAST wall too. Using any of these techniques on the garage will bring some decent natural ventilation which will keep the house cooler.

OK, so that's where we start with site design. There are totally different considerations once you add in hills, waterways, and the like... but this will give you a place to start with your own design, I hope!

Next post: Designing the house

Lessons learned: Solatubes

For those of you who might want to install solatubes in your old or new home, let me give you some feedback on what we have learned about them.
Using them in all public spaces is wonderful. Baths, kitchen, living room, and especially closets... all can benefit from these devices. We love solatubes with "warm effects" lenses which make the light less fluorescent appearing.
When installing in media rooms (anywhere there is a TV), dining rooms or bedrooms where you might want to be able to control the light levels, it is best to do one of a few things: install solatubes with a daylight dimmer. This single design consideration can make a huge difference in how much you love your solatube's capability to deliver great natural light!

New way to see Architecture

So we've started looking at the way ALL architecture responds to different forces –

time, space, views, community, family, ego, the environment...

Seeing how we have built before tells us about the values of the people.

All architecture responds to these forces.

The question is… how does it where you are?

And has that changed over time or are the old responses still valid?

AMAZING new Building Rating System that WORKS FOR US!!!!

When I was getting a LEED technology update in a conference today, I found out about a GREAT new building rating system that works WAY better than LEED for Kins Domains!
Its called the 
Living Building Challenge
and it evaluates building performance in 7 areas:
Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty!
Please consider using this as a means to help you make decisions about your eco-settlement or Kins Domain!

Website

HUGE NEWS FOR ANASTASIA IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST!!!

ANASTASIA is coming to America in a huge new way! 

Please join us at TEDxABQ, where I'll be talking about how we can use lessons from archaeology to design new homes and buildings that work - are warm in winter and & cool in summer, and where you can put good food on the table and water in the cistern - all of which has been influenced by the Anastasia phenomenon!

In fact, here's a teaser I posted on Facebook...Click here for link.

The video of my talk will be posted online after the TEDx event Sept 10! 

SO EXCITED!!!