Feature: Building Blocks
March 1, 2008
As architects embrace the next wave of ecological design, a greater effort is being made to appeal to all strata of homeowner. "Being green doesn’t mean mud floors and corrugated siding," says architect Robin Donaldson of Shubin + Donaldson, based in Santa Barbara. "You can still have luxury and manage your environmental footprint." Shubin + Donaldson, along with the following group of firms, represents a new era of building, with projects that are good design first and kind to the earth, naturally.
Shubin + Donaldson
The firm Shubin + Donaldson has elevated the quality of design
to appeal to homeowners who expect rich materials, while maintaining ecological
sensitivity. "In terms of the sophistication of our clients, they expect both
livable beauty and resource efficiency. They’re not mutually exclusive," says
principal architect Robin Donaldson. In describing a clients’ residence on Santa
Barbara’s American Riviera, the architect quickly cites the contemporary
design’s green qualities. The house incorporates three separate solar-power
systems: Fifteen photovoltaic arrays generate electricity that reduces the
owners’ electric bills; a passive-solar system heats domestic hot water; and
another supplements the pool heater year-round. And parts of the original
house were dismantled and donated to Habitat for Humanity. Throughout the
three-story, 3,200-square-foot residence, the architect has carefully crafted
sightlines out windows and glass doors that open up the home’s neutral palette
to blend with views of the Channel Islands and Santa Ynez Mountains. Walnut
floors, a mahogany wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves punctuate the minimal
interiors by Genie Gable Interior Design.
Shubin + Donaldson, 805.966.2802, www.shubinanddonaldson.com
Pugh + Scarpa
When it came time for architects Lawrence Scarpa and Angela
Brooks to design their own home in Venice, Calif., they looked to the midcentury
work of famed Sarasota School architect Paul Rudolph. Inspired, Scarpa and
Brooks (of the firm Pugh + Scarpa in Santa Monica) created the Solar Umbrella
House. When awarding it an AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Award for 2006, the
American Institute of Architects described it as being "designed to establish a
precedent for the next generation of modernist architecture." In 2007, the
project also earned Pugh + Scarpa a national AIA Honor Award.
The project’s key element is a solar panel canopy, which uses photovoltaic panels to provide 100 percent of the electricity. The canopy also shades the building from the Southern California heat. "Typically, people design a building, then put on solar panels," says Scarpa. "We conceived it as an integrated part of the building." Large sliding-glass doors open the house to cross-ventilation and, in usual Pugh + Scarpa multitasking fashion, add a striking design element. "It makes the building more air than building," says Scarpa, "making it light on the land."
Pugh + Scarpa, 310.828.0226, www.pugh-scarpa.com
Cutler Anderson Architects
Engaging the environment is the philosophy that permeates the
work of Cutler Anderson Architects. Each project has "a strong visual
choreography to the landscape," says principal James Cutler. The firm is located
on Bainbridge Island, Wash., and is well known for its work (with the firm
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson) for Microsoft founder Bill Gates. In 2003, the Reeve
project on Washington’s Lopez Island provided a dramatic setting. Cutler
situated a 2,600-square-foot residence into the face of a cliff, pitching a sod
roof to align with the angle of the wind-sheared cedar and fir trees. Glass
frontage opens up the entire house to views of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca,
while the back of the wood-clad house is nestled against a cliffside forest.
The firm has utilized low-volatility building materials since the 1980s, used as an integral part of a 1987 "bridge" house situated over a seasonal stream. In 2003, Cutler Anderson built rammed-earth walls for the main house, as well as a guesthouse and a study at Meteor Vineyards in Napa Valley using local soils, which create wavy, marbled layers. They have found many ways of artfully adapting local topography and materials while staying, as Cutler puts it, "Emotionally, visually and technically green."
Cutler Anderson Architects, 206.842.4710, www.cutler-anderson.com
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