White kitchens, without the right treatment, can be cold and clinical spaces, but the boldness of this colour for a backsplash counteracts this conventional belief. Photo credit: Fauzi Anuar

This project proved that a certified Passive House can have the same combined mortgage and energy costs as a conventional house: monitored heating costs are only $200 per year. The integration of Lifetime for Homes guidelines make this house accessible for people of varying physical abilities and will allow our clients to stay in their home as they age. A small solar panel can provide 55% of all hot water, further lowering energy bills. Hawkins House is both LEED GOLD and PASSIVE HOUSE certified. Photo Credit: Jarrell Whisken

This project proved that a certified Passive House can have the same combined mortgage and energy costs as a conventional house: monitored heating costs are only $200 per year. The integration of Lifetime for Homes guidelines make this house accessible for people of varying physical abilities and will allow our clients to stay in their home as they age. A small solar panel can provide 55% of all hot water, further lowering energy bills. Hawkins House is both LEED GOLD and PASSIVE HOUSE certified. Photo Credit: Jarrell Whisken

The kitchen has shades of dark grey, charcoal for its countertops, kithchen island, and cabinets. The charcoal glass backsplash completes the dark look. Equipments, devices and food products are ingeniously hidden behind the charcoal lacquered panels. All the appliances are integrated and the fridge is panel-ready. The countertop wraps the kitchen island, creating one distinctive element in the middle of the space. Image credits: Francis Raymond

Context Norbert and Robin had dreamed of retiring in a Passive House-certified home overlooking the Lubberland Creek Preserve in Southeastern New Hampshire, and they’d done their homework. They were interested in using four integrated Zehnder America (www.zehnderamerica.com) technologies to make the 1,900 square foot home extremely energy efficient. They didn’t miss any opportunity to innovate or raise the bar on sustainable design. Our goals were focused on guaranteeing their comfort in every season, saving them money on a fixed income, and reducing the home’s overall impact on the environment as much as possible. Response The home faces directly south and captures sunlight all winter under tall and vaulted ceilings and a continuous band of slim-lined, Italian triple-pane windows and doors that provide gorgeous views of the wild preserve. A second-story office nook and clerestory provide even deeper views, with a little more privacy. Zehnder, which previously sold its innovative products only in Europe, took on the project as a test house. We designed around Zehnder’s vent-based systems, including a geothermal heat loop that heats and cools incoming air, a heat pump cooling system, electric towel-warmer radiators in the bathrooms, and a highly efficient energy recovery ventilator, which recycles heat and minimizes the need for air conditioning. The house effectively has no conventional heating system—and doesn’t need it. We also looked for efficiencies and smart solutions everywhere, from the lights to the windows to the insulation. The kitchen exhaust hood eliminates, cleans, and recirculates cooking fumes in the home’s unique kitchen, custom-designed to match the ways Norbert likes to prepare meals. There are several countertop heights so they can prep and clean comfortably, and the eat-in kitchen also has two seating heights so people can sit and socialize while they’re working on dinner. An adjacent screened porch greets guests and opens to the view. A roof-mounted solar system helps to ensure that the home generates more energy than it consumes—helped by features such as a heat pump water heater, superinsulation, LED lights and a polished concrete floor that helps regulate indoor temperatures. Photo credit Chris Smith

Located in a suburban development, this residence uses the conventional construction methods of its McMansion neighbors, but focuses on reductive materials and detailing. Four gabled forms enclose a courtyard pool for this young family. Sited at the ridge of a hay field, the house recalls the agricultural forms of the region. Two grades of cedar clad the house expressing its formal origins. Knotty, horizontal siding clads the exterior with a dark stain concealing the inexpensive material’s imperfections, while a finer grained vertical cedar is used where the forms are sliced, carved, separated, and rotated, revealing a more refined interior than the knotty cedar suggests. The house is rigorously ordered to layer spaces and establish framed views through the house, allowing family members to connect, inside and out. Balancing the owner’s desire for a contemporary aesthetic with comforting warmth, the architecture fits its suburban neighborhood while surprising visitors upon closer inspection. Photo Credit: Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks LLC