Most people think that living in an energy-efficient home means they have to sacrifice their dreams of owning a big house with a pool but that is a myth and Faulkner Architects is here to bust it beautifully! We all know that client requests will include the stars and the moon, but the architects here actually made it happen – every room faced towards the Sierra Nevada Mountains per the request! What makes this even better is that Viewfinder House improved energy efficiency by 14.5% when compared to similar structures.
Located in Truckee, California, the 7,200 square feet lavish house comes with a pool and offers a look into what environmentally-friendly architecture is really like. Two rectangular boxes form the core of the structure and the space is connected through multiple covered porches. The lower level is contoured to match the property line, but the upper level is rotated so that you can soak in the panoramic Pacific Crest mountain views. The materials removed from the pool and house excavation were saved and used for the nearby terraced landscaping to reduce construction waste while repurposing it meaningfully for the surroundings.
The team used steel for the base so that the house could hold up against deep winter snow. The exterior has a rain screen of red cedar which protects it from the street without blocking natural light. There are many passive design elements that create shade to promote energy efficiency throughout the home like the roof overhang that protects the glass doors from weather and solar gain inside the home. It also is equipped with high-efficiency boilers to conserve energy and work in conjunction with effective radiantly heated floors. Even the back of the lower level takes advantage of earth sheltering to organically insulate the home and facilitates natural ventilation through the large windows and careful door placement.
Faulkner Architects’ team emphasized using enhanced-efficiency glazing and insulation for a tight construction envelope based on a press release. These combined efforts and design details helped the house to improve the energy efficiency well above the already strict California energy code. The Viewfinder House is a step in the right direction for the architecture industry as we move towards a more sustainable lifestyle!
Designer: Faulkner Architects
Iconic architectural monuments become furniture design details with the CITYNG chair series
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A play on the words CITY and SEATING, Savio Firmino and Cosimo de Vita’s CITYNG series of chairs take you on a tour around the world. The backrests on each of the chairs pay tribute to 16 different iconic monuments across cities like Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Moscow, Petra, New York, Agra, etc. By immortalizing these architectural marvels in his furniture series, designer Cosimo de Vita hopes that each chair becomes a symbolic representation of its monument and location’s cultures and traditions. Lined together the chairs capture the multicultural beauty of history and architecture in one single photo, presenting an incredibly diverse skyline of the world’s architectural wonders.
The chairs wonderfully do justice to their architectural inspirations with the way they’re made. The seats come with a stepped design, mimicking the steps leading to a building, while the backrest explores the monument’s architectural styles and details with meticulous engraving. The chair below, for instance, represents the Duomo di Milano, while you’ve got the Florence Cathedral right below that. Other iconic architectural marvels include the Notre Dame in Paris, the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Chrysler Building in New York, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, and the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan.
About the CITYNG series, designer Cosimo de Vita says “CITYNG is a journey between West and East, between tradition and modernity; the chairs are handcrafted in solid wood, but also decorated with a numerical control pantograph”. The chairs are crafted using a combination of techniques, including handiwork as well as CNC-machining. Florence-based company Savio Firmino, which partnered with Cosimo de Vita over the CITYNG series, will be displaying the entire collection of furniture at Supersalone during the Milan Design Week 2021.
This bilevel tiny cabin comes with a 100-square-foot floor plan that cost only $10.5K to construct!
Nido is a tiny cabin with a 100-square-foot floor plan to meet Finland’s zoning laws that do not require a building permit for houses with a floor plan between 96 and 128 square feet.
In recent years, designers and architects have interpreted the tiny cabin in countless ways. Depending on the location, building material, and layout chosen by the architects, each tiny home can serve a different purpose and take on its own unique look. Robin Falck, a Helsinki bred and born designer, let Finland’s generous building permit parameters guide his latest project, a tiny cabin called Nido.
In Finland, homes with a 96 to 128-square-foot floor plan do not require a building permit, which opened the door for Falck to construct his very own “compact getaway” deep in the woods of Sipoo. In building Nido, Falck maintained a sub-100 square-foot floor area and took to local recycled building materials to construct his tiny cabin. Working with such a modest floor plan and recycled building materials made the entire undertaking a lot more affordable, clocking in at just around $10,500. Falck was also able to champion the home’s construction work on his own, only needing an extra set of hands for carpentry work on a window and door frame.
The cabin comprises two levels and keeps a low profile exterior, with unstained wooden siding and white painted frame elements that tie the cabin together with a touch of elegant simplicity. A bare ramp walkway composed of wooden planks leads to the tiny cabin’s entrance and connects to the cabin’s side deck. Inside, angled, expansive windows drench both floors with natural sunlight and compliment the home’s natural wooden interior and soft hues of the Nordic-inspired color scheme found throughout the cabin.
A micro-kitchen and living area fill out the cabin’s first floor, while the second floor keeps the bedroom and extra storage space. Meaning “bird’s nest” in Italian, Nido is the ideal cabin getaway for the snowbird in each of us who just wants to get away from it all and hide out in the woods.
Designer: Robin Falck
The tiny cabin’s side deck merges with the house’s unstained wooden exterior, creating a seamless look.
Robin Falck describes his approach to design as, “tactile, simple, and strives to tidy things up as elegantly as possible.”
The interior’s Nordic-inspired color scheme is brightened by the natural sunlight that pours in from the home’s large windows.
A micro-kitchen and living area comprise the first floor, while the second floor is dedicated to the bedroom.
Falck constructed Nido on his own, only requiring extra help for the windows and door frame.
