Office for Visual Effects Studio Combines Industrial Style with Creative Spaces

The Good Haus celebrates the intersection between design and performance – and seeks to be an example of a “good house”. The house is the family home of principals Mela Breen and David Good (designer and builder) – and playfully gets it’s moniker from Dave’s last name. So what is our idea of a good house? In this case it is one that is pushing the possibilities of a site specific design while holding itself accountable to reaching the highest level of energy efficiency. Our good house is one that embodies our beliefs about resiliency, efficiency, health and comfort, beauty and playfulness. The DNA for the Good Haus is established by the site, a steep and rocky hillside that spills down onto a small neighboring foothill meadow. A limited buildable footprint, season drainage concerns, and an inviting flat outcrop of granite drove the initial design. Two intersecting geometric volumes were conceived, each reaching out to connect the building to the landscape, each intersecting the other and providing counter balance. The main first floor volume is a long south facing rectangle that stretches and anchors in the granite. A deep west facing porch protects the house from overheating, bridges a rocky drainage and links the open floor plan to the landscape with a large outdoor living space. The second floor volume runs perpendicular to the main living space and cantilevers to create a covered north entry, while a balcony on the south side cantilevers towards the oak canopy – creating a sense that the master bedroom is in a tree house. The exterior material pallet is in keeping with our love for the handmade modern. Cedar siding from trees grown on Mela’s childhood property and milled by her father is mixed with standing seam metal roofing that turns downing to clad the walls as a way to articulate the building form. Because the topography falls roughly 12’ over the relatively narrow width of the house, and the granite spine to the west hinted at what might lay below the soils (giant boulders and bedrock), we opted to build the first floor primarily on a steel pier and beam structure with a metal pan deck. This allows the building to float above the rocky drainage. The complexity of the design, with its cantilevers and steel deck foundation, require a heightened attention to the air sealing and insulation details. The super insulated, air-tight building envelope is wrapped in exterior Rockwool insulation, all the connections between interior and exterior structural members are meticulously detailed to avoid thermal bridges, and triple pane European windows and doors are used to maximize light, comfort, and performance. A CO2 heat pump water heater provides the most efficient domestic hot water delivery. Balanced heat recovery ventilation offers high indoor air quality and uniform temperature distribution. Indoor climate control is provided by super efficient ductless mini splits. A 6.5 kw roof mounted photovoltaic system is installed to offset the home’s energy usage (including the charging of an electric car) – creating a zero net energy building.

Built for family and friends as a space for sport and gathering, the Fieldhouse is a simple, functional structure. Like the immersion of nature and recreation in the development of state and national parks of the early 20th century, this family wanted a structure where friends, family, and neighbors could gather, play sport, celebrate and relax in the country. The Fieldhouse feels distant and secluded, located on a mostly undeveloped seven-acre site, surrounded by a meadow of natural grasses, a fruit orchard, wetland ponds and a maintained field for sporting. As long time natives of the Pacific Northwest, the family was keen to convey a specific sense of place and longevity. The architecture responds to those ideas in its simplicity and versatility, and in its construction from durable, local materials. Inspiration was taken from vernacular stone and timber structures built across the country in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The architects and clients channeled their own recollections of summers spent in Seattle’s waterfront parks and their simple elegant structures, often by early 20th century Seattle architect Ellsworth Storey. The 1,664-square-foot structure consists of a covered outdoor patio flanked by two, offset and enclosed spaces housing a sun room and inglenook to the west, and a kitchen, grill and two bathrooms to the east. Designed to accommodate almost any situation, the Fieldhouse can shelter four as comfortably as it can 60, hosting sleepovers, family sports tournaments, reunions and outdoor dining with ease. The structure employs a gradient of enclosure and structural qualities from the immersive intimate inglenook to the ever thinning shed roof structure, gently lifting off above the central patio. The building can be shutdown to weather storms, or opened wide to allow light, air and activity to pass through freely. The structure provides a straight-forward and visibly-constructed language of materials. It progressively lightens from a solid stone base, to thick timber columns, to pairs of rafters and thinner yet pairs of purlins, supporting the single-plane shed roof. The timber is all Douglas fir and cedar harvested and salvaged from the Pacific Northwest. The stone is taken from a quarry on nearby Vancouver Island and the early, factory-style steel casement doors and windows are West Coast built. This timeless assembly of materials and method of construction suggest that this is a building about its surroundings and a stalwart of the region it resides in, functioning as well today as it will in 100 years. Hoedemaker Pfeiffer design team
Steve Hoedemaker, co-founder and partner
Justin Oldenhuis Project team
Hoedemaker Pfeiffer (Architecture)
Hoedemaker Pfeiffer (Interior Design)
Joseph McKinstry Construction Company (Contractor)
Swenson Say Faget (Structural Engineer)
Kenneth Philp Landscape Architects (Landscape Architect) Photography
Andrew Giammarco

No natural light? No problem.