Car port and side view of architecturally designed beach-side home with surprising pops of yellow.

Photo: Roy Aguilar

This Scandinavian look shows off beauty in simplicity. The clean lines of the roof allow for very dramatic interiors. Tall windows and clerestories throughout bring in great natural light! Meyer Design Lakewest Custom Homes

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

The artfully designed Boise Passive House is tucked in a mature neighborhood, surrounded by 1930’s bungalows. The architect made sure to insert the modern 2,000 sqft. home with intention and a nod to the charm of the adjacent homes. Its classic profile gleams from days of old while bringing simplicity and design clarity to the façade. The 3 bed/2.5 bath home is situated on 3 levels, taking full advantage of the otherwise limited lot. Guests are welcomed into the home through a full-lite entry door, providing natural daylighting to the entry and front of the home. The modest living space persists in expanding its borders through large windows and sliding doors throughout the family home. Intelligent planning, thermally-broken aluminum windows, well-sized overhangs, and Selt external window shades work in tandem to keep the home’s interior temps and systems manageable and within the scope of the stringent PHIUS standards.

Michael Nicholson

Joe Fletcher

Qualitativ hochwertiger Wohnraum auf sehr kompakter Fläche. Die Häuser werden in einer Fabrik gefertigt, zusammengebaut und eingerichtet und anschließend bezugsfertig ausgeliefert. Egal ob als Wochenendhaus im Grünen, als Anbau oder vollwertiges Eigenheim. Foto: Dmitriy Yagovkin.

What started as a kitchen and two-bathroom remodel evolved into a full home renovation plus conversion of the downstairs unfinished basement into a permitted first story addition, complete with family room, guest suite, mudroom, and a new front entrance. We married the midcentury modern architecture with vintage, eclectic details and thoughtful materials.

East Exterior Elevation - Welcome to Bridge House - Fennville, Michigan - Lake Michigan, Saugutuck, Michigan, Douglas Michigan - HAUS | Architecture For Modern Lifestyles