Smaller Houses with Character

Architect Nils Finne designed this house in the Seattle, Washington suburb of Redmond.  The 4225 square foot, 4 bedroom/3.5 bathroom house is mostly wood, steel, and glass, and makes excellent use of natural light.

At FINNE Architects, they have been practicing sustainable design for over fifteen years.

They are members of the Cascadia Green Building Council and are LEED certified. Every project is designed to fit to the site in a sensitive manner, to conserve resources by using passive heating and cooling, to maximize the use of natural light, and to employ sustainable building materials. They also promote a philosophy of building smaller homes, but with a focus on quality, rather than large homes with no real character. Smaller homes are more sustainable, and they also promote local suppliers of major building materials such as windows, siding, roofing, etc. Another important part of our practice is the attention to detailing and craftsmanship in their projects. Sustainable design is not simply creating a laundry-list of green materials, rather, it is creating enduring building form and construction with appropriate long life-cycle, low-energy consuming materials.

Site Issues

Solar Orientation to capture maximum passive solar heating.
Wind Orientation to capture prevailing breezes.
North-facing glass minimized to limit heat loss.
Careful site study to minimize disturbance to native vegetation.

Building Form

Deep overhangs provide solar shading and protect exterior materials, give longer live cycle for exterior materials.
Rainscreen” detailing of exterior walls provides air layer behind siding, protecting against rotting and extending life cycle of materials.
Extensive glass areas for natural lighting, ventilation, and passive solar heating.

Rainwater

Channeled for re-use as irrigation.
Directed back to soil so as to minimize contribution to storm sewer systems.

Insulation

2×8 wall construction to achieve 42% higher insulation value than standard 2×6 walls.
Some projects have walls up to 12″ thick for even greater insulation value.
Use of cellulose blown-in insulation, made from re-cycled paper, instead of fiberglass batt.

Exterior Materials

Stone used for maximum life-cycle costing and durability.
Wood used as renewable resource, with certification if budget permits.
Wood structural members chose from engineered lumber, employing wood waste products.
Metal siding used for maximum durability.

Interior Materials

Linoleum for counters and floors.
Counters from recycled materials such as aluminum, glass, or paper.
Resin panels with various embedded materials such as sea grass.
Low VOC paints.
Mecho Shades for extensive solar shading.
Wood certified to be sustainably harvested.

Heating/Mechanical

Radiant heating.
Natural ventilation through extensive use of high clerestory windows.

Lighting

High clerestory windows and extensive glass areas for daylighting, minimizing energy consumption.
Energy-miser light fixtures.
LED’s used to minimize energy consumption and maximum lamp life.
Fluorescent fixtures used whenever possible.

Construction Recycling

For renovation projects, we work with “second-use” companies that re-use windows, doors, cabinets, appliances, etc.

Our construction sites typically re-cycle large amounts of construction debris to minimize impact on landfills.

One Response to “Smaller Houses with Character”

1. Decor says:

   November 15, 2008 at 1:35 am

   Awesome !!,,, a well designed wood house with excellent use of natural light. Very nice to take a nap in !!!! Simply Beautiful.