Here are some pictures of our project in the Central Valley, taken on a stormy but clear winter day. The house sits above a lake favored by many migrating birds, and has broad vistas of the Sierra mountains. A full slide show can be found here.
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Recently, when down in the Salinas Valley working on a large project there, we visited a house that we designed that was built several years ago. Project architect Janet Armstrong Johnston created a small house that’s full of light and space and remarkably rich and engaging for a small house. Clerestory windows provide solar heat and light during the winter, and ventilation in the summer.
It was wonderful to visit such a comfortable house that’s been fully “broken in” and see how the homeowners have loved and appreciated the house, and filled it with all that they love.
Click here or on a picture for a small gallery, or click here for a slideshow. Here’s an interactive 3D of the living room.
Our house designed for a hillside near Winters, California, is now complete. Here are a few pictures from the housewarming that took place in January.
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Our project in the Central Valley is almost finished….here’s a sneak preview of the results!
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Straw delivery
This month we began stacking, lathing & plastering bales for the U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Station in King City. Here are sketches of the project.
Designed by WRNS Studio, with Plant Construction as general contractor.
Bale Squeeze placing a stack of straw bales
Bale wall before lathing
Bale wall with lathing
Courtyard
Yesterday Buddy, from Ornamental Iron Designs, brought his daughter along as he checked on the curved stair railing and other features at our project on a lake in the Central Valley. Here is a stitched together picture taken looking into the courtyard.
Davis Train Station
We recently passed by the Davis Train Station on the train, and saw the strawbale benches we made from that vantage point for the first time.
Here’s a little video and slide show!
One of our design goals is to create buildings that can maintain a comfortable environment with a minimum of artificial heating and cooling, and using fresh air ventilation. The heavy insulation of the bales protects the indoor temperature from extremes of the outdoor climate, and the thermal mass of the plaster provides heat storage capacity that tempers the indoor environment and allows the easy introduction of fresh air ventilation.
Here is an interesting explanation of why fresh air is good for us!
The project we designed for a hilltop in Winters is nearing completion. Here are a few progress pictures.
We first conceived the design for this house on a windy hilltop during a design charette with the entire SM staff, college interns and the two daughters who will share a bedroom there.
Since then the project has traveled the path to completion largely unchanged from it’s original scheme which features a tall single story kitchen and great room and a two-story bedroom wing, situated to provide shelter from winds and to take advantage of the wide and varied views.
Conceptual view from the road....
View from the road....
Great Room & Fireplace...
The Great Room features a fireplace, an office nook and an open-beamed ceiling. It opens out to a patio to the west, and a courtyard to the south.
Great Room under construction
