Another amazing example of the design flexibility of the unparalleled energy efficient building standard, Passive House!

Green building at it’s most charming, this modern farmhouse, lightly French inspired, is a study in whimsy, drama, and eclecticism.  Designed for a family of three, lots of entertaining of guests, and plenty of space for private time, hobbies and storage, this 2000 sf home, boasts an interior living tree that defines the entry from the great space, and ample floor to ceiling glass with views to a beautiful prairie field.  A cooks kitchen, grand dining area, double main floor offices, and screened porch are all just excellent examples of this homes unique and flexible approach to living.

The exterior is richly detailed, but modern in its material choice, making this transitional design accessible but still edgy.  Designed to have the living spaces face the South, viewed initially from the drive on the South, the drive swings around and then is finally approached from the North, this design is a great example that a high performance Passive House can be designed for any site, and in any style.  Bon apetite’

Without a doubt, we are all in love with the integral automatic window shades used on the Jewel Box Passive House windows.

The windows themselves are extremely high performing, German made by Pazen.

While not a high action video (and unedited)… watch it and tell me you weren’t just a touch mesmerized.

Let the disappearing act begin…

Unique House Features:

Cooks kitchen
Lots of smart storage
Natural light
Vaulted great room
Over sized garage
Whimsical angled central organizational corridor
Little kid lofts in the children’s rooms

Exterior

Interior

Every inch of this ultra modern and sleek, energy efficient glass box is put to good use, from its pinwheel design with a pre-manufactured walls and mechanical core to its floor to ceiling glass connecting the house firmly to its stunning mountainous site.  The projects language is one of simplicity, and elegance, resulting in an understated and solid but magnificent island home, perfect for the clients, a retired couple seeking a refuge from clutter and over stimulation.  Designed to be flexible, adaptable, and flowing, the effortless traffic patterns support the small homes long sight lines and sense of spaciousness despite its small size.

This cozy prefab home is nestled in the woods with the sounds of nature and country living as the background music for the homeowners while tending their extensive gardens-to-be. We designed this home for the precise needs of the two homeowners, great walls of book shelves, large inviting spaces for entertaining, cozy spa like bathroom with views to the woods, dramatic bank of windows which blurs the lines of life inside to out, lots of natural daylighting and high ceilings and covered outdoor working areas to extend outside playtime well into winter months.

See the slideshow of the panel process for Le Jardin,  from Factory to Site

This one will be on the 2011 OMB Tour of Homes August 20,21,27,28…. come by to see it and have a chance to win a new ipod nano!

We all love this super low carbon footprint energy efficient Passive House,  it feels like it grew from the earth and settled right in as if it’s always been there. A small-sized house designed for local wood and metal sculpturist, Don Freas (Don Freas Designs), this wonderfully friendly modern house is nestled on a hillside overlooking Budd Inlet and the surrounding mountains. Together with Don, we’ve created a refuge for inspiration, comfortable living and creating.

Be sure to watch the video on the most elegant integral automatic window shade system installed in The Jewel Box, it’s really slick!

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Exterior

Interior

Integral Automated Window Shading

We’ve designed and built a lot of beautiful homes over the years! We’ll give you a taste for some of these homes in this slide show. We’d be happy to show you more of our work, we have photobooks to share and we can even take you to a site for a first hand viewing. Meanwhile… enjoy!

Please note: there are 4 separate slideshow page links below….

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Prefab or pre-manufactured is the new way of high quality design and construction.

Folks love to see how quickly a bare space ends up with their new house on it! Frankly, it’s fun for us too!

True, it’s very cool to see a house come alive in a day’s time! But, not only is it time efficient to use prefabricated wall panels, but it greatly reduces production costs, limits materials waste and allows for quick and trouble-free construction time on site.

Click on thumbnail to start larger photo slideshow.

This one is on the 2011 OMB Tour of Homes… come by to see it and have a shot at winning a new ipod nano!

Eclectic, playful, monochromatic two-tone, modern styling in east Olympia! This cheerful 1900sf home was designed for living and entertaining for a young active family. This bright and roomy house has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a large vaulted great room, a second story loft with 2 bedrooms 1 bath loft, a first floor master suite and a flexible “away room”.

Every square inch of this home was planned for in the design stage allowing for convenient traffic flow, excellent storage, and flexible spaces all within a modest footprint. The vast covered outdoor areas extend the living spaces year-round.

The homeowner has a vast gallery of ‘during construction’ photos on their Facebook page that they’d like to share, check it out!

Exterior Photos

Interior Photos

The North family hit the road running when they moved in, no time wasted with adding charm, life and vitality to their new home. As an observer, they live in this house as if they always have. I attended their huge gathering mentioned below, and was delighted by the fun and function of the house, somehow, there was even room for a dance party in the kitchen!

The above pictures were taken on painting day, the family selected a very fresh and fun two-tone green ensemble which is the truly the jewel of the neighborhood! I’ll post more photos soon, meanwhile enjoy this short interview with DT North… a new Passive House owner:

1.    How long have you been in your new house?
Our family moved in 3 months ago.

2.    Do you love it? Is it what you expected?
We do! The one thing about a custom built house I did not know is that the adjustment to living in the house is seamless. The house was designed around our needs, behaviors and patterns, so it’s been great. The house is light and bright very cheerful to live in.

3.    How is family life in your new house?
Family life is good. Our 15 year old son and 10 year old daughter have their own space upstairs. Kim and I have our own space down stairs. The main rooms in the house are family friendly. The house design has great space to share or have privacy. We love the spaces! We have had people over and the open layout is perfect for entertaining. We, actually had a large celebration  with 65 guests, flow and function was spot on, plenty of room for everyone to relax and have fun.  We enjoy opening our home to friends and family.

4.    Have you monitored your energy bills so far? If so, what have you discovered?
I don’t have much data yet and we were still dialing in the ventilation system to maximize comfort after we moved in, but, we have looked at our electric and gas use through the Puget Sound Energy (PSE) website. Our gas use (which was the larger of the two in our old house) was down quite a bit. We have a 62% decrease in energy in the first month. Keep in mind too that that is with a 1950 square foot house versus our prior house on the same lot that was 1200 square foot. I can’t wait to see the decrease percent in the winter months.

5.    You’ve probably seen that PSE has requested a rate increase of 8% for electricity and 3% for gas for 2012, after increasing both of those rates just last year. How do future energy costs make you feel now that you live in a Passive House?
Well if you going to build a custom house, why wouldn’t you build a super energy efficient house? It is just makes economic sense. I imagine that the prices will continue to rise in the coming years and we will be the benefactors of the investment in Passive House design.

6.    Is the home performing in other ways to your expectations?
Our auxiliary heating system has not come on since we moved in (and most people still had heat coming on in early July on some days!). However, we have had pretty mild temperatures (in the low 50’s). Our old house used to run the heat when temperature was in the 50’s. Now we don’t. We do have to vent more than we thought. The solar gain is pretty impressive. But we open the windows and the stack effect (heat rises and vents through the upper windows) clears the warm air out in minutes. There have not been enough cold days yet to know how the passive performance is in cold weather. Again, next winter season should give us some more information.

7.    What is the most notable difference between living in a Passive House vs. other homes you’ve lived in?
Mostly, it is having consistent temperature throughout the house. You know those times you get up early in the morning you expect to get your robe and slippers? No need in our house. The temperature is the same in the bedroom and by the back doors.

8.    Can you tell a difference in the indoor air quality of your new home?
It’s still a little soon to tell. We have had windows open and dirt work going on outside for a while .

9.    Knowing what you know now, would you still build a Passive House?
No question, we would. I wish all of the new homes being built required the stringent Passive House performance standards. With all of this talk of reducing our energy needs, it is amazing that the national dialog has not yet included simple solutions like having super tight, super insulated, efficient ventilation, super comfortable construction with minimal additional initial cost. Hopefully, with more people choosing Passive House design, it will become more mainstream.

10.   As an early adopter of Passive House, what would you say to people who are considering having the Artisans Group design and build them a Passive House? Would you recommend a Passive House to someone looking to build a new home these days?
Absolutely! Whether you are building a custom built or a spec house, the people at the Artisans Group are high touch, highly competent professionals.