Green Woods House in Amagansett, New York by Stelle Architects

Article source: Stelle Architects

The owner of an existing Acorn house located in the woods in Amagansett, New York came to us with the request to design in its place a modern single-family residence with as much attention to energy use and sustainability as possible. With budget in mind we embarked on an exploration of to achieve this using conventional building methods, which quickly led to a dead end. Enter ASUL, a company from Arizona that specializes in a system based design methodology and a kit of parts site-built assembly process.

Green Woods House

• Architects: Stelle Architects
• Project: Green Woods House
• Location: Amagansett, New York
• Design Team: Frederick Stelle, Viola Rouhani, Luca Campaiola, Esra Unaldi
• 3D Renderings: Luca Campaiola
• Software used: Vectorworks

Green Woods House

Through this collaboration we were able to achieve the design at a much lower cost to the client. While the owner initially had hopes of employing roof mounted solar panels to generate electricity, and a geothermal system for cooling and heating, it soon became clear that neither the large forest canopy, nor the heavy clay content of the soil were going to make either feasible. Maximizing the solar orientation, we turned to integrating passive solar design principles into the structure. A large overhang and the deciduous trees allow for natural shading in the summer.

Green Woods House

In the winter, the low sun penetrates glass with a very high solar heat gain coefficient, and heats the floor, which in and of itself acts as a thermal mass. The portion of the roof that does receive adequate sunlight receives solar hot water heaters. These panels tie into an advanced mechanical system to provide radiant heating throughout the house. The north wall is heavily insulated, with strategic openings used for cross ventilation. The combination of a high level of attention to insulation and air quality throughout give the house an Energy Star rating.

Green Woods House

Narrative on Sustainability

A 3,000 square foot Energy Star rated single-family residence in the woods of Eastern Long Island takes advantage of the site and orientation to maximize passive solar energy use. The southern façade, with floor to ceiling glazing relies on a continuous overhang and the surrounding forest canopy for shading in summer time. In winter, the process reverses with the lower sun penetrating the glass and allowing the thick masonry floor to capture the heat. Roof mounted solar water panels tie into an advanced mechanical system and provide radiant heating throughout. This project is a collaboration with ASUL who have developed a locally adaptable site-built process combining a kit-of-parts assembly model with contemporary materials and labor management practices to achieve affordability.

Building Sections

Elevation

Elevation

Site Plan

Tags: Amagansett, New York

Categories: House, Vectorworks

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2012 at 5:48 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.