Studio-E Architecture

Certified Passive House in Eugene, Oregon under construction

janfillinger — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:51:55 +0000

for more information on our current passive house project, download our brochure: Bring_show_flyer

Orchard Street Residence

janfillinger — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:32:27 +0000

Certified Passive House in Eugene, Oregon.

In housing, being passive puts you in the forefront of change. The Passiv Haus movement, inspired by experimental building in North America in the 1970’s, took root in Germany in the early 1990’s. To date, more than 15,000 buildings in Europe have been certified. A Passive House is “passive” because it does not require an active heating system. Instead, you invest in insulation, super-efficient windows and doors, and a tight shell, with the costs recouped by savings on your heating system and a smaller photovoltaic array.
Passive House design uses comprehensive modeling software to tune passive solar heat gains and avoid overheating. It cuts energy used for space heating up to 90%.
A recent surge in interest in the United States, particularly high in our region, indicates that architects and builders are ready to consider Passive House design standards. With our relatively mild winters, the Pacific Northwest is well suited to this building system. It is adaptable for both new construction and retrofit / remodel projects. In a Passive House, you enjoy a modern standard of living with a very low carbon footprint.

Passive House is an integrated set of design principles for lowering energy demand to a practical minimum.
In the Orchard Street Passive House, primary elements include:
•Ultra-low energy use (maximum of 4.75kBtu/sq. ft. per year for space heating)
•Super Insulation (combinations of closed cell and open cell spray foam, cellulose and rigid board insulation for R-85 Roof / R-70 Walls / R-90 Floor)
•Thermal Bridge-Free Construction (double 2×4 wall assembly modeled in THERM 5.2)
•Air Tightness (must achieve maximum 0.6 air changes per hour – 0.60 ACHS – for certification)
•High Performance Windows and Doors (Unilux UltraThermo triple pane, with U-0.12 and SHGC 0.5)
•High Efficiency Heat Recovery Ventilation (Zehnder ComfoAir 350, 84% efficient)

The energy to operate a conventional home far outweighs the initial embodied energy to build it. By putting attention and resources upfront during design and construction, Passive House offers minimal impact. As Katrin Klingenberg, Director of Passive House Institute US states, “In Europe PH is the cheapest way to build when taking life cycle cost into account.”

Heron Building

janfillinger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:23:07 +0000

Though the Heron Building is primarily influenced by American urban traditions, important European influences are found in its dramatic entrance tower and the carefully crafted detailing throughout. The colors are inspired by the sun-baked earths, reds and ochres of the Italian hill towns in Tuscany. The complex is designed to appear as a series of smaller buildings, built over time as neighbors, forming a larger whole, typical of early twentieth century commercial development. The ground floor was designed for restaurant and retail use and the upper floors house professional office suites.

Filbert Street Live-Work Lofts

janfillinger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:47:03 +0000

This project involved the renovation of, and addition to, an existing historic brick and wood frame warehouse / factory complex in West Oakland, to accommodate 15 new live/work artist’s studios. The challenge consisted of utilizing the existing building structure, character, and materials, to create flexible spaces, while allowing for repetitive modules for cost efficiency. The existing masonry buildings required extensive seismic and cosmetic upgrades. Interior design combined industrial detailing with warm craftsman aesthetic, re-using and re-cycling as much as possible of the existing materials in their native, unvarnished state, to create interesting, non-toxic, and livable spaces.

miramar street residence remodel

janfillinger — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:38:00 +0000

The Miramar Street Residence was remodeled and a secondary dwelling unit was added when the owner invited her mother and stepfather to move into their home rather than into a retirement home. The secondary unit is self-contained, yet intimately connected to the rest of the home via two interior doors. The project satisfied the needs of both parties for comfort, independence, storage and access. The remodel added much needed daylight to the home, and the much enlarged and modernized kitchen of the main house became the daily gathering space for the entire extended family. A library was added over the new apartment with the fireplace, red walls, skylights and balcony imparting a warm and cozy feel to the space.

Village at Agate Beach

janfillinger — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:24:39 +0000

The Village at Agate Beach is a townhouse development of four buildings, each with three units, located near the north edge of Agate Beach. In size from 2,200 to 2,500 SF, the units include three bedrooms, two to three baths, and an open floor plan for the living areas that extends onto balconies with views of the ocean. A shared landscape area at the center of the site unifies the buildings into a neighborhood community. Skillfull integration of the buildings with the sloping site ensures beautiful ocean views for each townhome. The uphill units are furnished with an elevator for full accessibility

cottage grove residence

janfillinger — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:07:08 +0000

Sustainable Country Home
The owners wanted to build a home that was rustic and farmhouse-like, yet very compact, sustainable and energy-efficient. The house is located on a 10-acre sloping forested lot with good solar exposure and a pretty view of the surrounding hills. Despite a small footprint and a space-saving floor plan, the home includes all the amenities for comfortable living, including a small study with a sleeping loft, a tiny guest bedroom and bathroom, a storage room, and a mudroom. A compact master bedroom and bathroom, and a small deck are located on the second floor. The heart of the house is the “great room”, a large open space encompassing the kitchen, dining room, and living room. A large screened porch with an exterior fireplace provides protected outdoor dining and relaxation. All the rooms feature sloped ceilings with exposed structural beams. The owners sustainably harvested most of their construction lumber –studs, beams, and planks- on their property. The wood floor of chinquapin is also from sustainably managed sources. While the owners heat their house mainly with fall wood collected on their property, their floors will be kept comfortably warm via a radiant system heated by ground-coupled heat pump. The domestic hot water is pre-heated by roof-mounted solar panels. Fiber-cement panels, sustainably harvested shingle siding, and broad eaves protect the home from the weather.

berkeley hills residence

janfillinger — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:25:10 +0000

christensen road residence

janfillinger — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:30:58 +0000

Sustainable, energy efficient contemporary style passive solar home; 2600 sq. ft., two stories; detached four-car garage with workshop, 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. Exterior finishes include thick formed concrete walls, stained fiber-cement siding, and galvanized steel roofing. Interior finish floors comprise bamboo flooring, stained concrete slabs, and limestone tiles. Hydronic radiant floor heating and cooling is provided by a ground-coupled heat pump system with a fluid-filled exchange loop encased in a 450 ft. deep abandoned water well. Expansive roof overhangs and south-facing glazing respond to the Northwest climate while allowing lots of natural daylight without undue solar heat gain.

prineville residence

janfillinger — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:16:11 +0000

The main focus for this project was to design a building that is beautiful in its simplicity and whose energy efficiency strategies are very simple yet effectively integrated into the form and functionality of the building. The strategies for the design of this energy-independent off-grid house were to design the courtyard geometry to deflect winter winds and funnel summer night breezes, promote evaporative cooling and shading through courtyard vegetation, include evaporative cooling through misting for peak temperature days, design compact spaces with tall ceilings, include dormers for deep light and additional thermal gain, use efficient glazing, properly sized, configured and located to promote winter solar heat collection and summer heat exclusion, include ceiling paddle fans for summer cooling and winter destratification, use high-R manually operated window insulation, include thermal mass slab with air core tubes, passive air inlets and outlets, design a structure with super insulated exterior walls and roof, with minimal infiltration and thermal bridging, Appropriately sized overhangs, and shading devices (including trellises and vegetation) for winter heat collection and summer heat reflection with high mass masonry interior walls, Underslab and slab edge insulation, include solar clothes drying area indoors for winter, outdoors in summer, use night-flush cooling through breeze- and convection-driven air circulation form low to high openings, and use a stormwater collection system where the graywater will be used for irrigation.