Project description provided by DPo Architecture. Photography by Grant Harder.
This home was built using prefabricated mass timber CLT panels on a site in Vancouver. The unique site allows for dramatic views of the scenic downtown and mountains beyond but also toward an intimate courtyard formed between the two structures.
The structure was built of prefabricated cross-laminated timber while abundant glazing with sliders promote cross-ventilation. Concrete floors with radiant heat generate enough heat in the winter and also help store solar gain through the west-facing glazing.
Rusting steel panel cladding on the exterior make a strong presence in the design. A succulent low maintenance green roof helps with rainwater harvesting on the site. In the courtyard, a fountain also clad in steel introduces a water element as a natural complement to the wood.
The stair rises to access the green roof garden, which was also planted by the owner to increase the water retention in the wet climate and allow for a more sustainable footprint.
A skylight at the roof level brings light down this same whitewashed wood and through the open stair risers to bring light to the basement.
The architects incorporated a found hemlock log into the light over the island and designed the dining table from wood milled by the homeowner.
Wood finish is exposed on the interior of the north and south walls and is dramatically expressed in the design as it rises up the fully exposed two storey high CLT wall along the main stair.
Every solid wood tread on this stair was patiently milled by the owner from a large fallen white spruce tree to size. The stair rises to access the green roof garden, which was also planted by the owner to increase the water retention in the wet climate and allow for a more sustainable footprint.
In the future, solar panels can be installed to the roughed in conduit ready to receive them and the long-term goal would be to run this home on fully renewable energy. This would provide an added benefit to this already environmentally conscious design which has a lighter carbon footprint stored in its structure, as it is made out of the natural and renewable resource of wood.
The owners built their bed from wood salvaged from an old weathered deck. A quilt made by the homeowner hangs above it.
The courtyard provides a gathering space between the main house and the laneway house built on the same property to house the multigenerational family.
Published via Bowerbird.
