The Artalejo-Lacas Residence has been featured in the Fine Homebuilding "Houses 2010" issue! It is on the newsstands now, check out the article which starts on page 45...

Artalejo-Lacas residence

We're busy, and that is news in an of itself.  Not that we haven't been keeping busy over the last year and half since the big crash, but given the abysmal state of the construction industry as a whole, we're happy to report that anecdotally there seems to be more activity out there (knock on wood). More housing starts, sales, news in the Daily Journal of Commerce about other firms hiring, and some of those holes in the ground out there starting to see renewed activity. So what have we been working on?

First, check out the latest schemes for the Sunset Substation pocket park in Ballard.  We've made a hybrid scheme out of the three prior options, increased the potential of the solar array, and reworked the parkscape with a more sculptural land forms and a sinuous path from corner to corner:

We've also been working on a great remodel/addition in Laurelhurst, opening up a classic midcentury modern house. There is a timber bamboo grove and small park to the north, creating an intimate feeling for the new kitchen and dining room despite the expanse of glass:

And we're making some progress on the Mitate House. I'm excited that as the design has been refined, we're getting more elegant volumes, a clean functional plan and expanding the opportunities for interaction with the landscape.  I'll be posting more shortly on this one--we're getting the renderings ready for the builder's pre-sale marketing and will highlight the sustainable construction aspects:

Plus we're working on a live/work in Fremont, renovations in Ballard, Sand Point, Montlake, Capital Hill, a restaurant, 2 backyard cottages, to name a few, and I'll feature some more projects this month.

We've done our first presentation of three ideas for the Sunset Substation Park.  More information about the three schemes are here, here, and here.

The solar component of this park will produce between 20 kW and 30kW, and provide power for the community multipurpose space, and an emergency relief center.

We're looking at meeting the Living Building Challenge, the highest standard for sustainable construction.  It would be a major undertaking, since there are less than a hundred structures in the world currently attempting to meet this challenge, but we have a lot of things going for us at this scale of project.  As the project develops, I'll keeping posting information on the Challenge--how it is affecting the design, and the costs.

We're working in concert with Bennett Custom Homes to design a series of houses which depart from the spec craftsman template that we see in current developments, heavily influenced by Asian design and courtyard houses. The Mitate House Collection is punctuated by gardens: the 'tsuboniwa' or pocket garden, a salad garden off the kitchen/outdoor cooking space, a four season porch, surround gardens that invigorate the side yards, and a water feature.  While we're designing for a more constricted and generic site, we imagine that the design will take more advantage of the specific site once we have one.

Each design will be loaded with green building features, have an enlarged 'shoebox' entry with space, loft, a carport that doubles as an outdoor room, and a covered spa area with outdoor shower.

We've come up with three alternative designs which will help Bennett bring some exciting ideas to the spec marketplace, and give people a new perspective about what is possible in a spec housing.

Here is the first of three designs:  the Cascabel

The house is a dialogue between solid and void spaces, where the house elements have been pulled apart to create gardens, covered outdoor spaces, habitable roof gardens and some dramatic interior spaces:

For more information and plans, jump below the fold:

First floor:

Second floor:

The design juxtaposes a boxy 2 story element with several low slung volumes split with a slot garden at the core of the house.  The house has a massive wall running the length of the house that becomes fireplace and storage, but is broken to create a two story atrium adjacent to the garden.

The house has a series of gardens beyond the 'tsuboniwa' (pocket garden)--a private courtyard adjacent to the guest suite, a salad garden for growing vegetables off the kitchen, a broad outdoor patio wrapped in planting, and a roof garden off the master bedroom.

For more information and plans, jump below the fold:

First floor:

Second floor:

The last in our Mitate House Collection for Bennett Custom Homes is the Sorrel.

Again, the heart of the design is a courtyard garden, which is bounded on one side by the open kitchen/dining/living room and the guest suite on the other. Large doors open each space to the garden.  Privacy is critical in most developments and by making the garden central, we are creating a private interior landscape, daylighting, and ventilation without compromising to shield the neighbors eyes.

For more information and plans, jump below the fold:

One the key elements to this design is that the pathway from entry to living spaces shifts, bridging across the garden, to create a emotional transition point from the outside world to the interior of the house, similar to the stone bridges you often see in Japanese gardens:

First floor:

Second floor:

We have been working with a couple who are planning on moving out of the original house, and into a new backyard cottage.  We're pushing the limits within the ordinance--almost exactly 800 square feet--in order to build a 2 bed room, bath and a half cottage. Although the house is small, the spaces inside feel just right.  And we'll be able to include a lot of high finish touches and crisp details because we aren't spending money on lots of square footage. Having a finite perimeter and volume really focuses the mind on the priorities of the design.

The character of the house the client's wanted is very craftsman and the scale and roofline fits right in with the neighborhood in general--certainly not the scary developer vision that opponents of the ordinance summoned during the public hearings.  It reinforces that these projects are for people with a vested interest in both their property and their neighborhood and are very sensitive to the impact on their neighbors.

Here is another view which shows off the walkout patio off the dining space, the entry mudroom and the band of windows that wrap the living room, dining and kitchen:

We are also going to integrate a rain water harvesting system, radiant floors on a super efficient combination boiler, vaulted ceiling upstairs, and a extra height crawlspace with a rat slab to make up for some of the storage space lost in the downsizing.  For floor plans, follow the jump below:

First floor plan:

Second floor plan:

We've completed the first community design workshop for the Sunset Substation pocket park and we've started a blog for the project at www.SunsetSubstation.org.  The results of the workshop are posted here and you can read a write up from the Ballard News tribune here and another article from KOMO's neighborhood blog here. Now that we have some community input, we can start shaping their unique goals for bringing solar power generation and community space together.

In other news, Stefan is working through designing a micro-hydroelectric generation station for an eco-retreat/outdoor recreation center and meditation retreat in Colorado, and should be posting an introduction to the project and more information about micro-hydro.  Suddenly, we have a lot of projects which have some active or passive alternative energy components--very exciting stuff.

Tim is leading the charge on backyard cottages.  We have two custom cottages currently in design, and another design which will be available as a prefab.  We're finalizing the pricing, so we will have a more comprehensive information available soon.

We're also working with a homebuilder  to develop a series of spec homes bases on a fusion of asian design, modern spaces and out of the norm materials (see image above).  We're especially excited because the house's function emphasizes a series of landscapes integrated into living spaces, so we'll have courtyards, pocket gardens, and salad gardens for growing your own vegetables off the kitchen.  Our big presentation is on Tuesday so I'll post the schematic renderings afterwards.

Finally, this is the last weekend to see our WASTE NOT installation in the alley east of First Avenue, south of Occidental Park.  Anyone need 2500 2 liter bottles?

We've completed the second round of design on our CAST architecture case study backyard cottage.

The plan has been fine tuned to optimize it for advanced framing. We adjusted the spaces to work better with Kate and Ric's needs and have started looking at potential materials and finishes.

We've also started talking about systems - at this point everything is on the table, solar hot water, energy efficient boiler, hydronic floor heating systems, rainwater cistern for flushing the toilets and watering the yard, super insulated walls...

I suspect that our choices will narrow as the reality of our budget forces us to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right now however, the possibilities seem limitless!

The Seattle channel recently interviewed myself and CAST clients Kate Lichtanstein and Ric Cochrane regarding the backyard cottage we are currently working on together. They included our project in a broader story that profiles an owner of a recently completed backyard cottage and gives a basic outline of the new Seattle backyard cottage ordinance.

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up