Everything in a house must be thought through and designed.  Any and all of the design components are dependent on one another, so that the house may function as a system.  As students we realize that this knowledge is acquired through many years of experience, but by working together and obtaining knowledge from each other’s experiences we have begun to explore practical application. 

The design project for Archspace is a house in a residential neighborhood.  This is a relatively small project in which a group of seventeen students designed all parts of the home.  Through a community program called Neighborworks we have been able to put our experiences towards good use.  The design work we have developed will be implemented and used by a family excited for purchasing their first home.  Neighborworks’ goals are to restore home-ownership in residential areas that have been plagued by rental owned properties.  They believe that homeownership is essential to community pride and social connectivity.  For this reason we have chosen to pursue a design that encompasses the ideas of blending the home with its surroundings, while implementing sustainable building practices.

Through the design of the home we have learned valuable knowledge about passive solar techniques, materials, and building methodology that are essential for sustainable design.  The most challenging and largest sustainable feature was incorporating hay bales, an inexpensive native material, into the structure of the walls.  This provides a thick, thermal blanket around the building which in turns keeps energy consumption down.  We believe that the implementation of the straw bales, in cooperation with other solar design decisions, can provide natural ways of heating and cooling.  Therefore, not only will our experiences create a product that will be built, sold, and occupied, but we will develop a house that starts as a first-time buy and ends as a lifelong home. 

 

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