1402 Third Avenue
Suite 515
Seattle, Washington 98101
206.956.0883
Suite 515
Seattle, Washington 98101
206.956.0883
Blog
Backyard Cottages Could Create Affordable Housing
Chris Grygiel of Seattlepi.com talks about the new ordinance approved by Seattle City Council that will allow cottages to be built on single-family zoned lots. City Councilman Tim Burgess suggests, “That’s a positive way to create affordable housing in our city.”For height, square footage and other restrictions please check out the article: “Backyard Cottages OK’d in Seattle”
MF
Welcome to HARRISON architects!
HARRISON architects welcomes three new faces!Geoff Briggs (senior staff) comes to us from EDGE LLC. A certified Sustainable Building Advisor and beta tester for our new software, ArchiCAD, Geoff is totally tech-savvy and has been getting us through our transition to Building Information Modeling smoothly.
Matt Wasse (project architect) worked previously for our friends at Case Design and Project Management. Rob met Matt during the Passive House Consultant Training they both took this summer. Designer and SketchUp-master extraordinaire, Matt is a perfect fit for HARRISON architects’ sustainable goals.
Molly Fogarty (intern architect) just graduated from the University of Kansas and received her M.Arch. She specialized in sustainable design/build, and helped design and build the first LEED Platinum house in Kansas. Molly brings a youthful spark to the office as well as a keen eye for design.
Please read more About Us!
Seattle's Deep Bore Tunnel: A Huge Leap Backwards
Please read this excellent guest post on the current status of Seattle's proposed Deep Bore Tunnel by Cary Moon, on my friend Dan Bertolet's blog hugeasscity.RH
Eco House Book by Terence Conran
I am proud to announce that our little green-roofed garage has been published again, this time a double-page spread in Terence Conran's beautiful new Eco House Book. I have been a big fan of Terence Conran's since my school days in Toronto in the '70's. It is an honor to be included in one of his books. Other architects represented include several for whoem I have great admiration: Glenn Murcutt, Steven Holl, and Obie Bowman.
Like Conran's previous house books, this one is equal parts how-to and inspiration, this time with an eye towards making gorgeous places with less environmental impact. It includes sections on the basics of green heating, cooling, lighting and water, and house components: windows, floors, walls and ceilings as well as furniture and fittings. The design section covers ideas for both new construction and renovation. Outdoor spaces are covered in detail, including green roofs, gardening and landscaping. Eco-friendly maintenance gets a nod as well. The 17 case studies are all testimony to the face that beauty and eco-friendly can walk hand in hand.
The book is available locally from Elliot Bay Books.
RH
"Ultimate Garages" in The Boulevard Magazine
Two of our projects, the Sproull-Radke Green Roof Workshop, and the Barbat-Harrison Garage, appear online in the June issue of The Boulevard Magazine, which covers art, fashion and design in New York City and Long Island. I haven't seen the print version yet. It may only have the Green Roof Workshop.Here's a link: http://www.boulevardli.com/index.php/design/124-the-ultimate-garages.html
RH
Passive House (Passivhaus) in the Northwest
I have just completed the first of three 3-day sessions of the Passive House Consultant Training. It was a compelling introduction to the principles and techniques of this approach to radically reducing the energy used in buildings--to the point that the house can be heated with the equivalent of a hair dryer! We are going to use this approach with two of our current projects, and hope to incorporate this into all of our projects going forward. Here are a few highlights:• Typically when we design energy-efficient houses, we start with our more or less standard (to us) approach to the envelope of the house, and then size the mechanical system to suit the heat loss of the envelope. With Passive House approach, it's the other way around: we start with a fixed amount of energy that can be used for heating, cooling, lighting and plug loads (4.75 kBtu/SF/year), and design the envelope to make that work.
• Insulation varies with the climate, but in Seattle will likely be in the range of R-60 for walls, ceilings and slabs. Walls will be about a foot thick, offering lots of potential for design of the exteriors.
• The detailing of the ways wall, floor and slab meet each other will be different, primarily to eliminate thermal bridges.
• The houses will be very tightly constructed. Air infiltration and leakage will be less than 0.6 ACH@50 (air changes per hour at 50 Pascals. Typical construction is the range of five or six ACH@50.
• In the heating season, lots of fresh air will be supplied by a heat recovery ventilator.
• Windows and doors with a U-value of 0.09 will probably be imported from Germany. There are currently no manufacturers in the United States making windows or doors that qualify, though Serious Windows does come close.
• We will optimize passive-solar and internal heat gains. At this level of efficiency, the warmth generated by the refrigerator (and other appliances) must be accounted for! This also means careful study of shading, to prevent over-heating. Interestingly, the Passive House will not have a huge bank of south-facing windows, and no windows elsewhere, like the stereotypical "passive solar" house.
• We will be modeling the energy gains and losses using a program called the Passive House Planning Package, a sophisticated Excel-based spreadsheet.
• Sometimes referred to with its German spelling, Passivhaus, to distinguish it from "passive solar" houses.
• Inspired by work in the United States, but developed in Germany. So far there are only a dozen or so Passive Houses built in the US, but over 10,000 in Europe.
RH
Not So Big Remodeling
Sarah Susanka's latest book, Not So Big Remodeling is out in local bookstores and available online. (Purchasing through the online link benefits Lake and Park School, which my son attends.) On March 16th, 2009, USA Today published an article featuring the book and the importance of "living better, not bigger." You can click here to read the article.
About the book, Sarah Susanka says "It is wonderful exposure for a subject whose time has definitely come. With the economic downturn and the desire to make our homes more energy efficient and sustainable, there are many homeowners who are looking for ways to make their existing homes more closely coincide with their dreams of "Home." Co-author Marc Vassallo and I are hopeful that this latest book in the Not So Big House series will help answer those questions."
There is a special Not So Big Remodeling page on the Not So Big website.
And that's a photo of the Thein Durning Renovation on the back cover! We are very excited to have one of our projects featured in this book.
RH
O Ecotextiles on Top-10 Green Building Products List
Northern Lights from the O Ecotextile Collection - the same drape and luminosity as silk velvet.
Seattle-based O Ecotextiles, debuting in the U.S. this year, has been added to BuildingGreen’s 2008 Top-10 Green Building Products by the editors of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec®. This seventh annual award recognizes the most innovative and exciting green building products added to the GreenSpec® Directory during the past year or covered in Environmental Building News. For O Ecotextiles, being an “organic textile" means not just that a fabric uses organic fibers in the yarn, but that every step of the production process has been certified eco-friendly. The company produces elegant, sumptuous organic fabrics for residential and contract / hospitality design use.
The O Ecotextiles Collection - made from bamboo, hemp, abaca, ramie, linen and silk – offers 17 fabric choices and multiple colorways, plus custom. Their mission (which clearly parallels our approach to architecture) is to change the way textiles are made by proving that it's possible to produce luxurious, sensuous fabrics in ways that are non-toxic, ethical and sustainable, resulting in a fabric which is safe to bring into our homes. Their worldwide production partners do not support the sale and use of the thousands of chemicals used regularly in textile production that poison our soils, pollute groundwater, and devastate eco-systems. O Ecotextiles’ production partners treat their wastewater so it doesn’t degrade waterways. Their products do not contain toxic chemical residues. They are continuing to work on decreasing their carbon footprint. O Ecotextiles is currently available in select design centers and retailers throughout the U.S., as well as in London, and through Harrison Architects' interior design partner Barbat Design. Contact Frith to arrange a showing of the fabrics.
-RH
Healthy Toys
The good folks over at Washington Toxics Coalition have launched a new website: HealthyToys.org, a consumer guide to toxic chemicals in toys. A great resource for this time of year.RH
G/MAG on Green Roof Workshop
Gwen Cassidy over at G/MAG has blogged about Jim Sproull and Susan Radke_Sproull's Green Roof Workshop, calling it "A Guy’s Ultimate Garage Wet Dream." Have a look:http://gliving.tv/architecture-design/listen-up-dudes-check-out-the-ultimate-garage/#more-869
Amanda came across this post while researching materials for our micro-ecovillage project in Honolulu. I hadn't seen this site before, and spent a couple hours clicking through it. You'll find bits on fashion, design, food, vehicles, music and Hollywood's green celebrities. The well-designed site nicely manages to allow that green can be sexy.
RH