While Park Passive’s site was full of challenges for the Passivhaus designer, the solutions to these challenges shaped the home’s award-winning design. To accommodate the 2,700 square foot home on the 2,000 square foot site, we fused the massing from the site’s existing cottage with a new upturned rectangular mass defined by the parcel’s current zoning. This unique zoning envelope meant that the building’s shape became fairly articulated, with extra wood framing necessary to support the building’s verticality. This increased the likelihood that thermal bridges would pierce the home’s thermal layer, so we specified 17” insulation-filled walls to thermally isolate inside from outside and to hold onto any solar heat gain captured on a site with The home’s interior spaces “reach for the sky,” with large skylights providing a generous cascade of natural light down through the home’s vertical spaces. A double-vaulted kitchen at ground floor connects spatially with the play area upstairs, while the volume created by the home’s open staircase also captures light throughout the day. The staircase volume is expressed outside by a vertical form on the home’s street-facing façade that has become a defining architectural gesture of the home. Windows chamfer into this form, creating a visual connection between inside and outside that also celebrates the thickness of the home’s Passivhaus envelope.
2014 AIA National Housing Award
2016 PHIUS Passive Projects Design Award