BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

This year round two-family cottage is comprised of seven modules which required just 25 days to construct in an off-site facility. When assembled, these prefabricated units form a building that is 38 metres long but less than 5 metres wide. The length offers a variety of living spaces while the constricted width maintains a level of intimacy and affords views of the lake from every room. Sited along a north-south axis, the cottage sits obliquely on a ridge. Each of the three levels has a point of access at grade. The shared living spaces are entered from the top of the ridge with the sleeping spaces a level below. Facing the lake, the east elevation consists entirely of sliding glass doors and provides every room with access to the forest or balconies. Materials fall into two categories: reflective surfaces – glazing and mirror, and those with a muted colouration – unfinished cedar, zinc cladding, and galvanized steel. The objective is to visually push the structure into the background. Photos by Tom Arban

Valerie Wilcox
Mid-sized minimalist l-shaped medium tone wood floor and beige floor open concept kitchen photo in Toronto with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, stone slab backsplash, black appliances, an island and gray countertops

Green Plums. Umeboshi anyone? Plum has got to be one of the easiest tree fruits to grow requiring no interventions of pesticides. naturally small it is a great candidate for the city garden and small scale sites. They are also very drought tolerant.

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

This house was resting vacant for 7 years in a neighborhood undergoing a renewal. It was purchased by a builder intent on showing his craft by renovating this Shingle Style Dutch Colonial. The project involved a dramatically sloping site and constraints involving a traditional neighborhood with residents on the Historical Design Review Board. During Construction, a couple purchased the home adding requirements for multigenerational living. It was necessary to underpin and lower the basement to accommodate for elderly parents and a live-in care provider. All of these constraints have been architecturally sculpted into a contextually sensitive and elegant design. An ARDA for Renovation Design goes to Gaver Nichols Architect Designs: Gaver Nichols Architect with Deborah Nichols From: Alexandria, Virginia

Once home to antiquarian Horace Walpole, ‘Heckfield Place’ has been judiciously re-crafted into an ‘effortlessly stylish' countryside hotel with beautiful bedrooms, as well as two restaurants, a private cinema, Little Bothy spa, wine cellar, gardens and Home Farm, centred on sustainability and biodynamic farming principles. Spratley & Partners completed the dramatic transformation of the 430-acre site in Hampshire into the UK’s most eagerly anticipated, luxury hotel in 2018, after a significant programme of restoration works which began in 2009 for private investment company, Morningside Group. Later, modern additions to the site, which was being used as a conference centre and wedding venue, were largely unsympathetic and not in-keeping with the original form and layout; the house was extended in the 1980s with a block of bedrooms and conference facilities which were small, basic and required substantial upgrading. The rooms in the listed building had also been subdivided, creating cramped spaces and disrupting the historical plan of the house. After years of careful restoration and collaboration, this elegant, Grade II listed Georgian house and estate has been brought back to life and sensitively woven into its secluded landscape surroundings.

A 6,000 square foot 2-story new home complex in Milpitas was designed to facilitate the owners’ large business parties and gatherings, to have rooms for the kids to come back to upstairs, and a ground floor master suite with a huge walk-in closet. Several separate structures make up the dwelling: The main house, 3-car garage with carport for overflow parking, and a separate entertainment and recreation building separated by a courtyard from the main house. The business activities include gatherings in the hundreds of people, so parking was maximized and guests can flow in through a separate gate to party in the courtyard and recreation building. Inside this structure is a wet bar, billiard room, workout gym and home theater. The main house ground floor has formal and informal living rooms, open kitchen and master suite with views and expansive windows in every direction. The house is sited on the crestline of a hill with views of the San Francisco Bay and private golf course below. The indoor-outdoor aspect of the house is further accentuated with outside living and dining areas. High ceilings and expansive glass walls dissolve the sense of enclosure taking advantage of the site’s openness and privacy. The owner’s suite is downstairs in anticipation of aging-in-place, and upstairs there are three bedrooms and four bathrooms plus a sitting area lounge and casual TV loft area. The house sits on one acre at the top of a low hill range overlooking Milpitas. The city was very cognizant of the importance of keeping a low profile at this crestline and required extensive story poles and photo evidence of the proper height and siting so as not to be seen from certain selected vantage points. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: JCD Builders Inc. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Morf Chang Landscape Architecture / ODS Architecture PHOTOGRAPHS: Paul Dyer Photography

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

This house was designed for a couple and their son. One of the design program requirements was to have two master suites on the main level. They enjoy cooking and entertaining so the public and food prep. areas are functional, attractive and conducive to people gathering around. Consequently, the square footage of the main level is large. The house is also on a very steep slope which didn't help with the required footprint. In order to minimize the related costs of building with this site condition, the footprint of the house is long and not deep as it reaches down the slope. The scale of the existing homes in the neighborhood are unimposing. In order to play down the size as viewed from the street, the facade is broken up into several different masses with low sloping roofs. Once you're inside, the house opens up with 14 foot ceilings in the entry and living areas. The ceiling height of other spaces on the main level are 10 feet. Universal design was implemented on the main level to provide inherent accessibility for everyone. The lower level accommodates several guest rooms and baths, an exercise room, a guest den with wet bar and a man cave. Another design program requirement was to make the house as maintenance-free as possible. Exterior materials include stucco, Pennsylvania Blue Stone and a new aluminum siding product called Longboard. The siding comes in many wood grain finishes and to everyone that has seen it, they think it's real wood. It's also made from heavy gauge aluminum so it doesn't ding like traditional aluminum siding. The roofs are metal standing seam. The house is energy efficient. It's fully insulated with spray foam insulation-lots of it. The exterior walls were designed with 2x6 studs and roof rafters are 2x12 to provide plenty of space for the insulation, exceeding the required R-values. Windows and doors of course are energy efficient as well. All lighting is LED. The decking around the exterior is locust, a very hard native wood which is naturally insect and rot resistant. The best part of the whole project are the owners who love their new home. They initially had plans to live in this house during the summer months and Florida during the winter. They are now seriously considering living here full-time.

This LEED Platinum certified house reflects the homeowner's desire for an exceptionally healthy and comfortable living environment, within a traditional neighborhood. INFILL SITE. The family, who moved from another area of Wellesley, sought out this property to be within walking distance of the high school and downtown area. An existing structure on the tight lot was removed to make way for the new home. 84% of the construction waste, from both the previous structure and the new home, was diverted from a landfill. ZED designed to preserve the existing mature trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize site impacts, and to maintain the character of the neighborhood as well as privacy on the site. EXTERIOR EXPRESSION. The street facade of the home relates to the local New England vernacular. The rear uses contemporary language, a nod to the family’s Californian roots, to incorporate a roof deck, solar panels, outdoor living space, and the backyard swimming pool. ZED’s careful planning avoided to the need to face the garage doors towards the street, a common syndrome of a narrow lot. THOUGHTFUL SPACE. Homes with dual entries can often result in duplicate and unused spaces. In this home, the everyday and formal entry areas are one and the same; the front and garage doors share the entry program of coat closets, mudroom storage with bench for removing your shoes, and a laundry room with generous closets for the children's sporting equipment. The entry area leads directly to the living space, encompassing the kitchen, dining and sitting area areas in an L-shaped open plan arrangement. The kitchen is placed at the south-west corner of the space to allow for a strong connection to the dining, sitting and outdoor living spaces. A fire pit on the deck satisfies the family’s desire for an open flame while a sealed gas fireplace is used indoors - ZED’s preference after omitting gas burning appliances completely from an airtight home. A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space. A first floor guest bedroom includes an accessible bathroom for aging visitors and can be used as a master suite to accommodate aging in place. HEALTHY LIVING. The client requested a home that was easy to clean and would provide a respite from seasonal allergies and common contaminants that are found in many indoor spaces. ZED selected easy to clean solid surface flooring throughout, provided ample space for cleaning supplies on each floor, and designed a mechanical system with ventilation that provides a constant supply of fresh outdoor air. ZED selected durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no added urea formaldehyde. YEAR-ROUND COMFORT. The home is super insulated and air-tight, paired with high performance triple-paned windows, to ensure it is draft-free throughout the winter (even when in front of the large windows and doors). ZED designed a right-sized heating and cooling system to pair with the thermally improved building enclosure to ensure year-round comfort. The glazing on the home maximizes passive solar gains, and facilitates cross ventilation and daylighting. ENERGY EFFICIENT. As one of the most energy efficient houses built to date in Wellesley, the home highlights a practical solution for Massachusetts. First, the building enclosure reduces the largest energy requirement for typical houses (heating). Super-insulation, exceptional air sealing, a thermally broken wall assembly, triple pane windows, and passive solar gain combine for a sizable heating load reduction. Second, within the house only efficient systems consume energy. These include an air source heat pump for heating & cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and high efficiency appliances. Lastly, photovoltaics provide renewable energy help offset energy consumption. The result is an 89% reduction in energy use compared to a similar brand new home built to code requirements. RESILIENT. The home will fare well in extreme weather events. During a winter power outage, heat loss will be very slow due to the super-insulated and airtight envelope– taking multiple days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. An engineered drainage system, paired with careful the detailing of the foundation, will help to keep the finished basement dry. A generator will provide full operation of the all-electric house during a power outage. OVERALL. The home is a reflection of the family goals and an expression of their values, beautifully enabling health, comfort, safety, resilience, and utility, all while respecting the planet. ZED - Architect & Mechanical Designer Bevilacqua Builders Inc - Contractor Creative Land & Water Engineering - Civil Engineering Barbara Peterson Landscape - Landscape Design Nest & Company - Interior Furnishings Eric Roth Photography - Photography

David Marlow Photography
Example of a large mountain style l-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor open concept kitchen design in Denver with a farmhouse sink, flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, marble countertops, white backsplash, marble backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and white countertops

A 6,000 square foot 2-story new home complex in Milpitas was designed to facilitate the owners’ large business parties and gatherings, to have rooms for the kids to come back to upstairs, and a ground floor master suite with a huge walk-in closet. Several separate structures make up the dwelling: The main house, 3-car garage with carport for overflow parking, and a separate entertainment and recreation building separated by a courtyard from the main house. The business activities include gatherings in the hundreds of people, so parking was maximized and guests can flow in through a separate gate to party in the courtyard and recreation building. Inside this structure is a wet bar, billiard room, workout gym and home theater. The main house ground floor has formal and informal living rooms, open kitchen and master suite with views and expansive windows in every direction. The house is sited on the crestline of a hill with views of the San Francisco Bay and private golf course below. The indoor-outdoor aspect of the house is further accentuated with outside living and dining areas. High ceilings and expansive glass walls dissolve the sense of enclosure taking advantage of the site’s openness and privacy. The owner’s suite is downstairs in anticipation of aging-in-place, and upstairs there are three bedrooms and four bathrooms plus a sitting area lounge and casual TV loft area. The house sits on one acre at the top of a low hill range overlooking Milpitas. The city was very cognizant of the importance of keeping a low profile at this crestline and required extensive story poles and photo evidence of the proper height and siting so as not to be seen from certain selected vantage points. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: JCD Builders Inc. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Morf Chang Landscape Architecture / ODS Architecture PHOTOGRAPHS: Paul Dyer Photography

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

This is a lovely old home that experienced major renovations last year. We were very fortunate to be requested by the owners to update their landscaping upon completion of the renovations. The project relied heavily on collaboration with the owners who made the key decisions in choosing the plants that I suggested and deciding upon concepts. We decided to re-create the formal garden by using informal plants. We also decided that the flower color should be white throughout the formal garden. We spent time deciding upon color preferences, plants they like (such as lilac), and the "look" of the plants. We wanted them to fit the architecture of the house. The goal was to come up with interesting and unusual plants that provided lots of year round color and did not require lots of maintenance. The landscape will require periodic maintenance to monitor the plants and keep everything looking good. We used lots of Native plants where appropriate and re-used many of the plants on site. For example, we removed the cranesbill geranium from the old formal garden but discarded the dead and dying boxwood. We used the cranesbill geranium in beds against the back of the house. The plants will form a low carpet that flowers and reduces weed growth. We moved a very large pink flowering crape myrtle that was blocking the view to a corner of the house where it brackets the corner with another large pink crape myrtle on the other side of the corner.

This year round two-family cottage is comprised of seven modules which required just 25 days to construct in an off-site facility. When assembled, these prefabricated units form a building that is 38 metres long but less than 5 metres wide. The length offers a variety of living spaces while the constricted width maintains a level of intimacy and affords views of the lake from every room. Sited along a north-south axis, the cottage sits obliquely on a ridge. Each of the three levels has a point of access at grade. The shared living spaces are entered from the top of the ridge with the sleeping spaces a level below. Facing the lake, the east elevation consists entirely of sliding glass doors and provides every room with access to the forest or balconies. Materials fall into two categories: reflective surfaces – glazing and mirror, and those with a muted colouration – unfinished cedar, zinc cladding, and galvanized steel. The objective is to visually push the structure into the background. Photos by Tom Arban

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography

BeachHaus is built on a previously developed site on Siesta Key. It sits directly on the bay but has Gulf views from the upper floor and roof deck. The client loved the old Florida cracker beach houses that are harder and harder to find these days. They loved the exposed roof joists, ship lap ceilings, light colored surfaces and inviting and durable materials. Given the risk of hurricanes, building those homes in these areas is not only disingenuous it is impossible. Instead, we focused on building the new era of beach houses; fully elevated to comfy with FEMA requirements, exposed concrete beams, long eaves to shade windows, coralina stone cladding, ship lap ceilings, and white oak and terrazzo flooring. The home is Net Zero Energy with a HERS index of -25 making it one of the most energy efficient homes in the US. It is also certified NGBS Emerald. Photos by Ryan Gamma Photography