Energy-Saving Ideas From 3 Affordable Green-Built Houses

The competition targeted the Near Westside neighborhood of Syracuse for more reasons than proximity to Syracuse University. As Mark Robbins, dean of the university's School of Architecture describes it, the "From the Ground Up competition seeks to provide another model for disinvested urban residential neighborhoods found throughout the United States through the creation of affordable green homes." Yet, as can be seen, and as Michael Sorkin picks up on in his essay in the book, the winning houses are highly individual forms that have a scale similar to existing houses in the neighborhood but stand out strongly from them.

Following Passive House principles, the architects made the resulting exterior envelope 16 inches thick, with a value of R-70. From inside to outside, there's 2-by-6 wood framing (2-by-12 framing at the roof) with blown-in fiberglass insulation (drywall is mounted on the interior face of the studs, plywood on the exterior side), then EPS (foam) insulation and finally corrugated metal siding mounted on furring strips.

Uniquely, instead of using wood studs, the walls and roof are framed with truss joists (TJI members) that are normally used as beams. Triple-glazed windows with argon filling are the last ingredient in creating a superinsulated exterior.

The two-bedroom, two-bath house was bought by Maggie Maurer (shown here) and her boyfriend Peter Waack. Maurer, a mother of three, is actually a Building Performance Institute–certified building analyst, meaning she is living in one of the best examples of what she devotes her working hours to.

The house did superbly in the blower door test, much better than the LEED Platinum home they recently completed in their hometown. While the cost for the shell went up over their competition entry, it resulted in reduced mechanical needs. Or, as they describe it, "TED has the equivalent of a fur coat, rather than a windbreaker, standing between it and the harsh Syracuse winter." This keeps out the cold but also keeps the heat in, requiring very little heat to be generated.

The floor plans illustrate one way that Onion Flats sees the house being added to — a bedroom off the stair could turn the two-bedroom, two-bath into a three-bedroom house.

Steven Morris and Sara O'Mahoney, who own a bicycle shop in the city, purchased the house with the help of Home HeadQuarters, a housing provider that gave them down payment assistance and tax incentives. They say their house is "cheaper than our apartment was — and it's a thousand times nicer." Note the trays above the kitchen doors, where the couple is growing some food through the help of the glass transom.

While a lot of modern and contemporary residential architecture is criticized for not appearing homelike, the architects of the Live/Work/Home made the conscious decision to design a house that could be mistaken for a commercial building. In their decision to integrate work into the residential program, they hope to, as they say, "attract new residents and uses, helping to repopulate the urban neighborhood."

The retractable front screen shown here can maintain privacy and filter sunlight, but it could also serve as a means of signaling when the work portion is open for business.

Rather than combining parcels, as done on similar projects, the architects worked with one lot, meaning that the resulting single-story plan is a linear one. They found inspiration in vernacular longhouses, specifically the Haudenosaunee one in the Syracuse area. An external corridor extends from the front porch (previous photo) to the back porch. Hinged panels, perforated in tree-like patterns like the front facade, can be opened and closed to let in light and maintain privacy.

The plan is described by the architects as a loft, such that the main open space could be opened up entirely or, as is shown here, partitioned with casework for bedrooms.

Keeping with the $150,000 budget, the house is finished simply. A wall faced in oriented strand board separates the loft space from the service areas — storage, kitchen, bathroom, laundry. Additional natural light enters the house through solar tubes. Their orientation across the ceiling echoes the perforated panels of the exterior.

The exterior walls behind the perforated walls are made from structurally insulated panels that combine with the insulated glass and reflective roofing to create an efficient envelope, if not as tight or superinsulated as the other two houses.