Reasonable Projects

The house is conceived as an eloquent sculptural object nestled in the woods. A simple trapezoidal volume is lofted between two vernacular gable elevations of varying proportion and unified by a singular cladding. The apparent simplicity of the massing is belied by the hyperbolic paraboloid roof, defined by the simultaneous lowering of the roof peak and widening of the plan from east to west. The resultant form subverts idealized residential references with dynamic perspective effects, creating an experience that is at once familiar and surprising. The 2.8-foot-deep walls, punctured by deep-set fenestration, express both a principal driver of the performance of the house and help render it inscrutable. Monolithic black metal shingle cladding reinforces the sense of the objecthood of the house.

The experience of inhabiting the house is highly mediated by the landscape. Arrival at the house is via a long driveway, designed by the landscape architect DIRTT studio, that winds through tall evergreens and rocky outcroppings. Entering through the dark north facade starkly contrasts with the warm, luminous double-height living space inside. The extensively glazed south and west facades provide expansive views through the trees to the lake while serving as the principal engine of the structure’s passive heating and cooling. Through the glazed south door, the landscape terraces down to the lake in geometric forms that mirror the architecture of the house in the landscape.

Achieving the highest level of sustainability in the project meant eliminating operational and embodied greenhouse gas emissions. This led to key early decisions including a prohibition on fossil fuel combustion on site and the pursuit of Passive House certification (extremely challenging for a small house). The Certified Passive House Designer (JMV) was an integral part of the design team, tuning the passive design strategies to the building’s specific site to maximize performance, and optimizing mechanical systems for peak efficiency. To reduce embodied emissions, the design team used WBLCA tools to optimize material specification, resulting in specification of materials such as dense-pack cellulose insulation sourced from industrial waste streams.

A mass timber structure was essential to achieving the project’s architectural and sustainability goals, while providing a beautiful and unified interior finish. Bringing timber engineering (Styxworks) into the design team allowed detailed collaboration on all aspects of the timber structure, including connection design and production of shop drawings. Digital fabrication of the mass timber elements provided the team unparalleled control over the building geometry and interior finish quality, both critical to the architectural success of the project. The timber structure provided the ideal substrate (i.e. flat and continuous) for the building’s air barrier and was crucial to achieving the required air tightness – essential to achieving Passive House levels of performance. The complex geometry of the project, the rafter pairs in particular, necessitated milling on a 5-axis robot in Austria and shipping the pieces to site to be hoisted in place. The ultra-high performance EnerSIGN windows, doors and exterior blinds, were also produced in Germany and shipped to site for installation.

A local builder with experience in prefabricated construction was engaged to build the house. At the suggestion of the design team and owner, the builder participated in a ‘Passive House Techniques for Tradespersons’ course offered at BCIT. (JMV was an instructor in this course.) This strategy was very successful in conveying the key aspects of air-tight, thermal-bridge-free construction and translated into an expertly executed project.

Beyond Passive House performance, these sustainability strategies translate into a highly resilient home, hardened against forest fires and able to remain habitable during extended power outages.

This house is uniquely tailored to its client and to its site. The process that produced this house is broadly applicable and is an exemplar of an emerging potential for architectural practice. This mode of practice is characterized by engaging distributed teams of specialists in a highly collaborative design process; leveraging digital design and procurement processes that wed globally sourced prefabricated elements with regional materials; partnering with local builders to amplify their skills and knowledge with international best practices; and defining success to include all project stakeholders. The result is a project that represents a contemporary idea of architectural excellence, where design and performance are inextricably bound, a single category.