This is an 1800 sf Home, which includes a 500 sf Studio, for the architect and his family, which was constructed as an addition to the original 900 sf home that was converted into a home office and an accessory dwelling unit. The new home is built with straw bale walls and is designed such that passive solar heating provides half the heat for the home.
The goal in building this home in 2005 was to make a beautiful, comfortable and sustainable home. The Floor Plan is made up of the old house, the new two story home and a studio. The studio is a open, flexible, multi-functioning space. The old house has been converted into offices and an Accessory Dwelling Unit. The ADU is allowed in residential zones and is a 500sf rental with full Kitchen and Bath.
The choice to build with straw bale was a natural one, in that it provides several advantages; substantial insulation against heat loss, a waste product put to use, a non-toxic and available material. The Passive Solar design was the central concept around which the home was created. By placing a large per cent of the windows facing directly South roughly half of the gas is used to heat the home.
Locally harvested ponderosa pine were used as log posts and stair treads and sandstone quarried and cut in Ash Fork for the Kitchen countertops. A big part of the function and beauty of the home come from the cabinets, which were made using Minnesota maple. The second floor is built out of spaced heavy timber purlins and 2x tongue and groove Douglas for floor deck, which is the structural and the finished flooring. The inside of the straw bale walls were finished with a colored lime plaster. Our Dining Room table was fabricated from planks salvaged from the original garage that was torn down to make room for the project.
