The residence sits on a ridge line overlooking the Roaring Fork Valley and views to the Elk Mountains beyond. The client wanted a house that was subservient to the landscape from the entrance and yet had large, interior volumes throughout. Low sloped sheds clad in zinc downplay the building’s roof, while a patinaed steel skin downplays the mass of the house against its natural back drop. At the Living Room, Dining Room and Master Bedroom the steel siding is pulled away from the face of the building to create outdoor living spaces and provide solar shading for the home. In these areas, CVG Fir siding and expansive window walls reveal themselves. The CVG siding adds warmth and a sensual quality to the material palate at inhabitable exterior space. The window walls open the interior space to the panoramic views beyond and blur the line between inside and out.
The house is as sensitive to the broader environment as it is to the view. It is equipped with a ground source heat pump that provides radiant cooling and heating throughout. Additionally the house is equipped with 7 kw photovoltaic array and 12 evacuated tubes for solar thermal collection. The owner’s data shows that the house produces 70% of the energy that it consumes.
The exterior of the house was designed with sunshades to allow for maximum winter solar access, but to minimize summer heat gain. Exposed concrete floors were used almost entirely throughout to provide thermal mass to absorb passive solar heat through the regions cold winters and to utilize the cool summer evenings to keep the house comfortable in summer. Exterior steel siding was selected for its high content of recycled material and all concrete was specified to include a minimum of 20% fly ash.
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