This south-facing, passive solar, timberframe co-housing apartment building houses several
households and businesses. After clearing trees from the site, we milled the saw logs into lumber used to build this
home. The smaller logs and limbs yielded seven years of firewood, which provides heat through a centralized boiler system
and radionics in the polished concrete ground floor. The structure has redundant water systems (spring, well, and roof
water) with 11,000 gallons of storage. Its electricity and hot water come from the sun. The building is heavily
insulated with 8” (R-30) of blown-in recycled cardboard cellulose in the walls and 10” (R-37.5) in the ceiling. The
exterior walls feature earthen plaster, board and baton skirting, and clapboard siding. 2500 square feet of black locust
and mountain laurel deck space invites outdoor living in all seasons. We salvaged the windows and doors from a university
demolition. The interior spaces feature a variety of earthen plaster finishes and red oak tongue and groove flooring.
All finishes are low VOC for healthy living quarters. |
