The Solomonov Residence is located seventy miles north of Toronto on Georgian Bay near the site of a nineteenth-century French trading camp. The client’s program called for a modernist structure that reflected its natural surroundings. The post and beam wood structure and shed roof modulate the building, while the physical disposition and layering of spaces, materials and transparencies harness the emotive and sensational impact of the site.

The site slopes steeply down through a forest of mature birch trees to a dense band of evergreens bordering the rocky shore of Georgian Bay. The house is situated at the magical edge between the deciduous and evergreen forests. A choreographed series of events heightens the experience of movement through the site and house. The driveway winds through the birches, ending at a random stone forecourt bounded to the west by a long fifteen-foot high wall of horizontal 2” x 12” cedar planks stained white. South of the forecourt is a scribe-fit log projection with a massive boulder fireplace. The boulders, found on site, were glacial deposits.

The white-stained cedar wall reflects the uphill birch forest. Only the log and stone fireplace alcove and the entry door interrupt the walls. As the visitor passes through the wall, the space opens up and the evergreen forest and Georgian Bay reveal themselves through large expanses of glass at the western wall. This transparent western façade allows the forest and the sloping landscape to become an extension of the open plan. The few solid walls that exist in the house are used to define the less public spaces and appear as volumes placed independently within the discipline of the wooden framework.

To understand and intelligently respond to the parameters of the competition, the design process included multiple facets. An energy consultant and general contractor immediately became integral to the team. Appropriate energy and construction systems were discussed before forms were even sketched upon paper. Concurrently, the history and culture of the region were researched and the LBC goals understood. What resulted is an integrated systems approach that has intelligently informed the architectural intent.

Indigenous strategies are celebrated in the design. A long, berm-like wall insulates and protects the house from the prevailing northern winds. The traditional Aleut home, the barabara, similarly used the earth as protection from the elements. An arctic entry is incorporated to buffer against the harsh climate, as often seen in cold climate precedents.  Subsistence living with a culture of sharing gathered and hunted food has been part of traditional Aleut living. Through strategies of providing appropriate space as well as encouraging community involvement, the home is designed to invigorate some of these indigenous strategies in a modern way.

To design a home embodying the imperatives of creating a living building, one of the largest challenges has been the site itself. A large hill, situated to the south of the site, blocks much of the limited direct sunlight that reaches this latitude. Embracing the challenge, the home still functions to satisfy the LBC without sacrificing function or architecture. Passivhaus strategies of creating a highly insulative and sealed building envelope are fundamental to the design, significantly increasing the envelope’s efficiency while decreasing the heating energy demand. Heat is recovered even as return air is replenished by fresh air. While the home is designed for a specific site, it is replicable on a variety of sites throughout the Aleutian Islands. On a site receiving a greater amount of sunlight, the home can take advantage of this solar energy and reduce dependency on electric water heaters through the use of solar water heaters and passive heat gain through the southern glazing. In this case, the wind turbine may be downsized, taking advantage of the reduced demand on electricity.

SITE

The house sits slightly raised above the landscape upon a foundation of helical piers. The piers have minimal impact upon the site and require no extensive sitework, accommodating varying site circumstances. The system can be removed if necessary, and the landscape of native species including cladonia, angelica, crow berry and hair moss is almost instantly restored. 

In addition to respecting the natural landscape, the design encourages self-sustenance for residents. A large outdoor garden irrigated by the home’s grey water allows for the growth of potatoes, cabbages, carrots, turnips and radishes. Since the growing season is short, a root cellar passively stores many of the vegetables throughout the winter. A small shed with a chicken coop provides a meat processing/storage area as well as storage for fishing equipment. Meats are dried and salted in a space separate from the home maintaining the comfort of the home.

WATER

As clean water sources are quickly depleted throughout the world, careful consideration has been given to water supply and use strategies within the home. The roof has been designed to allow for 100% stormwater collection over its entire surface.  Net zero water is achieved by collecting, filtering, purifying, and storing this rainwater for all potable water needs. This storage of potable water is multifunctional. The house features a full length “water wall”, sized to meet all potable water demands.  The linear storage tank provides structure as well as natural seasonal benefits: when the wall is full during the winter, the extra insulation protects the house from cold temperatures and the northern prevailing winds. The added thermal mass helps regulate temperature swings throughout the day. Waste water from sinks and shower are filtered and purified to be used again as grey water for laundry, irrigation, and replenishment of the water table.

Black water from toilets and kitchen sinks typically needs to be directed away from the house to unsustainable waste treatment centers. Here, a compost toilet creates fertilizer for non-edible vegetation, and an undersink grey water filter traps food and grease, producing grey water that can be reused. 

ENERGY

To date, energy needs on the Aleutian Island chain are typically met solely by unrenewable sources, specifically gas and oil. An integrated systems approach coupled with passive strategies and efficient appliances, fixtures, and equipment allows for an energy plan that is intelligent in both the short and long terms. The house is built to be insulated and sealed per PassivHaus standards to allow maximum energy recovery and savings. Hot water is provided by efficient on-demand water heaters, and space heating is provided by hydronically-heated mass walls. These structural partition walls are heated for only a few hours a day. When the system is not running, stored heat in the thermal walls continues to radiate out and warm adjacent spaces. To reduce energy loss, the windows of the house can shutter closed at night to trap in heat. 

The energy that is needed is provided by a single on-site 1.9kW wind turbine. Geothermal, solar, and hydroelectric power were explored as renewable energy sources. Year round, high winds batter the community providing a harsh climate as well as the opportunity for a reliable energy source. The house is netzero with all demands being met by the single turbine. On the community scale, single-family turbines can be avoided and a larger turbine may be installed for multiple houses. Resources and infrastructure can be efficiently shared. A small wind farm is even feasible to provide enough renewable energy for the entire town of Atka. If the home is built on a site with greater potential for solar heat gain, the wind turbine may be downsized to a 1.2kW turbine to take advantage of the reduced demand on electricity.

HEALTH

The house can shutter closed at night and fully open up during the day, a process mimicking several plant species whose flowers close during the night hours to preserve resources. While the house has this ability to “button up”, operable windows line the living spaces, easily permitting user-controlled ventilation. When weather eliminates the desire to open up windows, an Energy Recovery Ventilator transfers heat from exhaust return air to fresh supply air from the outdoors.

The architecture itself is inherently biophilic, providing a healthy, thriving environment for occupants. From the interior, views are towards the southern, open and natural landscape. Additionally, strategic locations of the house feature full-height windows allowing a spatial connection to the surroundings. The north wall is covered with moss and runs the length of the entire building. Here, the landscape wraps up the face of wall and shelters the house from prevailing northern winds. When viewed from the exterior, the wall becomes an extension of the landscape. The remaining exterior facades are clad in corrugated metal, creating a soft surface upon which light plays and changes throughout the day. Local stone aggregate is used in the concrete mix for the thermal mass walls tilted up into place by the community. The house is directly linked to the people that live within and around it.

MATERIALS

The majority of the home’s construction consists of prefabricated panels with structure, insulation, and finishes fabricated and ready for assembly. These structural insulated panels have been used in LBC precedents and are fabricated with no redlisted materials. All building materials used promote healthy environments and satisfy LBC imperatives. Most materials are procured and organized in Seattle, providing an efficient workflow of on- and off-load in Seattle and Atka. Since the panels are manufactured in a controlled and efficient environment, construction embodied emissions as well as on-site construction waste are kept to a minimal. Local labor can be employed to construct the house, building up the skills and experience of a community that can utilize these skills for future projects. Once the house is constructed and occupied, there are no operational emissions.

Historically, waste building materials have filled a staggering portion of landfills around the world. In an effort to address this, the house is designed so that deconstruction will result in recyclable components. The corrugated cladding, lumber, and service pods of the house can be reused. Helical piers can be removed and reused at a new project site, and the landscape can easily return to its natural state. Occupants of the house are encouraged to compost, further diverting materials from landfills.

EQUITY

The home is inherently livable and comfortable. Spaces are intimate and efficient, yet comfortably spaced through a tight layout. Reducing the footprint results in more efficient energy use through construction and use. The house is accessible, designed as a single level with an entry ramp or stair based upon occupant needs. The home is subtle and does not impede visually or physically upon neighbors or the community. In fact, through community involvement, the home is intended to inspire public good and future architecture.

BEAUTY

Careful consideration has been given to visibly exposing the functions of the house. The linear water storage tank has a viewing portal that allows occupants to gauge potable water supply and usage and provide the opportunity to educate and raise awareness. The home additionally relates to the indigenous culture, re-imagined and modernized. Using these strategies can both inspire and inform future projects in Atka and on the Aleutian Island chain.

Intentionally subtle, the home celebrates simplicity and stands in harmony with its surroundings. The design is meant to serve and delight the user both aesthetically and architecturally in a natural and unassuming way.

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Hiking cabins set along the Latvian coast line- a section of trail known as ‘The Amber Road’ – an ancient trade route that stretches from Venice to St. Petersburg. This little project was a lot of fun as it married some personal interests- hiking and trekking- with my professional interests- specifically designing with timber.

I’ve spent a lot of time hiking established (and some not so established) hiking routes with rustic accommodations. In California’s Sierra Nevada mountains there’s the extensive backcountry hut system where I’ve been lucky to enjoy many an adventure with a lot of my BCJ comrades. We had a great crew in SF who did an annual long weekend trip out to the Ostrander Hut in the middle of Yosemite- a 10 mile each way trek only accessible by snowshoe or backcountry ski- typically done with enough bagged wine and fondue to last 3 days. In Europe I’ve hiked the GR20 across Corsica, the West Highland Way in the highlands of Scotland, the Lycian Way following old Roman ruins across the south of Turkey, and the famous Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. I’ve always appreciated how these refuges were basic, yet highly functional, and built with local materials.

Forests are the outstanding feature of Latvia, with woodlands covering over 50% of the countryside- made up mostly of Pine, Spruce, and Birch. Nearly all forests in Latvia are publicly accessible, therefore one of the most widespread pastimes of the population is picking bilberries, cranberries, mushrooms, and other bounties of natural environment… people like getting out into nature, and are pretty facile building with this endemic material.

The competition requested a low impact, transient and inhabitable infrastructure adaptable to the various site conditions along the route- including vast pine forests, dunes and white sand beaches rich with amber deposits.  These hiking huts sought to leverage local familiarity and expertise with wood. A tall slender structure that touches the ground lightly, reflecting the verticality of the pine forests. The hikers are drawn up off the ground ascending into the belly of the structure. Four rectangular portals are fit into the vertical structure, each providing a personal sleeping bunk floating int the trees, with framed views out to the forest. A glass vessel hangs in the center of the space- used to collect the amber nuggets collected along the hike. The vessel tells the story about how the shelter might evolve over time, making a connection to the landscape and making a connection amongst its disparate visitors. As the hikers gather the amber it is brought to the shelter and deposited in a glass vessel. The collection grows over time and the vessel becomes an amber lantern. As more amber is collected the shelter glows brighter. The building becomes an active participant in telling its own local story.

These sensitivities to nature and its beauty are depicted by another well-known Hudson River
School artist Asher Durand.  His great work Kindred Spirits on the left shows the poet and the painter on a ledge overlooking a ravine.  Durand paints the immensity of nature with man subordinated, small, part of, but IN nature.  Compare this painting with the view on the right.  4 This is the site of Peter’s Creekside House in California, where the poet and the painter come to create an opera of originality and purpose.  

This Caretaker’s Cottage and Office were built along the steep bank of Dry Creek at the entry to a five acre residential property in Woodside, California. The simply organized structures replaced preexisting buildings located along the creek’s edge. The inefficient and compartmentalized cottage was structurally compromised while the derelict office was falling into the creek. Local jurisdictions required that the new buildings be located within the footprints of the old buildings. Creating the new buildings provided an opportunity to introduce a clear relationship between the cottage and office, provide more efficient and complementary spaces, and better respond to the complexities of the site.

The two structures are located just north of a bridge providing the only access to the site, spanning Dry Creek. The nature of the program required that the building have an immediate presence on the site while providing privacy for the building occupants. The buildings are situated along the verdant edge of the creek between the public world of the entrance and drive and the private world of the forested creek. Solid wood clad volumes front the entry drive and house the utilitarian program elements while the more private living areas open up to the creek. The solid volumes are stretched out along the forested edge helping to heighten the definition of the public and private zones. Delicate ribbon windows are deliberately and sparingly placed in the austere façades providing specific views, introducing light, and maintaining privacy where required. In contrast, the full height glazed living areas allow the intimate building plan to extend outward.

The solid weathered cedar boxes provide privacy to the building occupants, but also minimize solar gain with their Southwesterly orientation. East facing overhangs further minimize solar gain and complement the shade provided by the trees along the creek. Both building’s incorporate radiant heating systems and provide passive cooling through the use of operable windows and doors, located to encourage cross ventilation and take advantage of evaporative cooling from the prevailing breezes carried along the surface of the creek. As the existing structures were disassembled, the creek bank was restored to its natural state as native seasonal flora was introduced to restabilize the banks and offer runoff control. The new structures were delicately placed in this landscape to encourage the stewardship of the vegetation and proliferation of the creek banks.

While materially and formally similar, The Caretaker’s Cottage and Office are programmatically diverse. The Cottage houses the living elements of the program, while the Office hosts the working component. The utility bar at the Cottage consists of a galley kitchen, a closet, and a bathroom. The ribbon window at the kitchen is placed just over the counter, bringing light in at the working surface. In contrast, the window at the bathroom is located high, introducing natural light and views of the surrounding foliage while maintaining privacy. The main living space is a 12’ x 28’ rectangular bar with floor to ceiling windows on three sides. A Murphy bed is built into a wood clad nook to the south, inserted into the window system. The sleeping area can be partitioned off when desired with two pocketing doors built into the utility bar. Double doors from the living/ dining area open onto the shared courtyard between the Cottage and Office, creating a visual and programmatic link between the two buildings. As one enters the Office’s meeting space on axis from the Cottage, the floor cantilevers out from the bank while the full height glazing allows the occupant to float above the creek. (special sentence here?). The utility bar at the Office hosts the office and desk area, a utility room and a bathroom. The ribbon window at the office is located so that the Caretaker can monitor the main entry and the bridge. Like the Cottage, the bathroom window is placed high to bring in natural light but maintain privacy.

The simple, modest structures function as one as they address diverse programmatic needs, while maintaining a strong relationship to one another. They boldly assert themselves when necessary and at the same time softly float into their surrounds, clear responses to their place.