This couple’s house is nothing like the one they originally sketched out on a napkin. But it’s exactly what they wanted. Their advice?
Let your mind be changed.
In 2014, Zachary and Rachel bought a beautiful piece of property near Boston Harbor in Olympia. They hosted barbecues on the land as they tried to picture what kind of house they wanted to live in.
They went into the project knowing that they wanted a sustainable house. As they got to know our work, they realized that our Passive House designs checked their boxes: a sustainable home built using a science-based approach that would be an aesthetically gorgeous place to live.
Zachary says they looked at our portfolio online and thought, “Wow, this really does stand out.”
Recently, we had a conversation with the two, who have been living in their home since it was finished in the summer of 2016.
Artisans Group Architecture + Planning: Tell us how this project got started. What is your house’s origin story?
Zachary: We purchased our land in 2014 and had it for about a year before we decided what to do with it. I had [taken some classes in] energy physics and climate change as I was finishing up at Evergreen, as well as building science and retrofits. So those ideas were fresh in my mind, as far as different techniques for building efficiency. Once we had the opportunity to buy the land, we used that knowledge to figure out different avenues for building the kind of house we wanted.
AGAP: Why did you choose Artisans Group?
Rachel: The reason we felt that Artisans Group was a good match for us is because they were as concerned about the science behind building a house as we were. And then the modern aesthetic and the simplicity of it was a good match. And then, you know, the team — they're all so fun to work with. It was like, yeah, this is somebody we can go and hang out with as often as we need to to get through this terrifying and stressful process.”
AGAP: What did you expect the process of working with an architect to look like? What surprised you?
Rachel: We didn't know what to expect. We had no idea what we were signing up for. And we had no idea how many opinions and decisions we would have to suddenly form about things we had never thought about before.
Zachary: [Our ideas] really pushed the [Passive House] model as far as possible to be able to meet some of the aesthetic desires that we had, essentially to put in as many massive windows as possible. [We didn’t know how to do that, but they did.] We were in good hands the whole time.
AGAP: What was it like getting started?
Zachary: Our first meetings were really fun. I feel like it was one of the best parts of the process…for us, trying to figure out, and really verbalizing, what our desires were.
[We discovered that] we had strong opinions on layout [and a] strong response to our land. [We knew] the viewsheds as well as where the sun is [and] where the wind comes from. That helped guide both the house placement [and] orientation. So we tried to let some of those forces guide the process in a good and informative way.
Rachel: Yeah, I would say we started with the land, because we had gotten to know this piece of property for a year before we ever met the Artisans Group. And we knew how we wanted to experience this property, with the viewsheds and the sunlight. I feel like we designed our house to be able to experience the outside from the inside as much as possible. And then the second priority was certainly how we live, which is cooking with our friends. And so making the kitchen the heart of the house, and making sure the kitchen got to see outside as much as possible, was key to the design.
AGAP: What is your house like? How would you describe it to someone who’s never been there?
Rachel: This house is full of light. I mean, even on these gray days we don't have to turn a light on because of the windows. And what we're looking at is not stuff inside the house. It's looking out the windows to what's outside, all the time. So we get to see the eagles flying by, and we get to see the coyotes in the lower meadow, and we get to see the deer stealing bites from the garden And it's just huge and open. You can't be in any corner of the house and not hear everyone else in the house so it always feels like we're together. The other half of the house is what's outside, getting to just walk out of our giant sliding glass doors and feel like the outside and the inside don't have any barriers is just magical.
Zachary: The house is clean and open and full of durable finishes, but still very simple. It doesn't really kind of fit into, say, a mid-century modern [category]. We always call it this-century modern.
AGAP: Tell us more about what it’s like to live there.
Zachary: In every other house that I've lived in, the [temperature] fluctuation inside between day and night was more or less inevitable, regardless of the age or style of build. Here, the temperature swing is less than a few degrees. The house stays consistently warm in the winter with radiant heat in the concrete floor. In the summer, we don't have any active means of cooling and so all of our cooling is done by ventilating at night, through open windows and doors. When we close it down in the morning, we can maintain a very comfortable temperature. Also, when it’s nice out, having the breeze come through is really one of the delights of summer here, no doubt. The blurring of those lines between inside and outside is part of what is delightful about it as well. It's different than anywhere [else] we've lived, for sure.
Rachel: The light is what matters most to me. We made design choices all the way through the house to make sure that we would get as much light as possible, even in the back of the house. We have clerestory windows in the guest bathroom and a window and a skylight in the laundry room. We’re pulling light all the way into what would normally be a dark house. That’s also part of what makes it efficient. We so rarely turn on lights. So I love that part.”
AGAP: Do you have any advice for someone who’s thinking about building a Passive House?
Zachary: Rachel: I would recommend that people just need to know how they want to live and what's most important to them in the qualities of a home. And they can trust Tessa and her team to build the home that's going to match that. I mean, that was the beautiful relationship that we had with them. We could come up with crazy ideas and dreams of how we wanted to live and then they could say, oh, well, this house will do that for you if we build this or do that. We didn't have to be experts. We let them do their job and we just got to come in with what we love about life, as general as that may sound, [and they figured out the rest].
Zachary: I think for people starting out, some of those questions, about what you want in a house, are so big. But there are smaller ways to kind of break that up. [You can decide that] you want more light in the house or that you want it to feel a certain way. That's a great process in itself. [If you’re just getting started,] try to educate yourself as much as possible. Not just in terms of the building science, but in terms of what you're trying to accomplish.
Rachel: My advice would be to let your mind be changed about what you want. Because this is a creative process. We brought ideas and we got more ideas in the process. Tessa and her team brought so many ideas to the table. We ended up with a house I couldn't have pictured at the beginning, and it's the one I want. I just didn't know it at the beginning of the process. So my advice would be to just let your mind be changed and be open to creating a new picture of what your dream house can be.
Posted on November 01, 2024
