The front of the house features an open porch, a common feature in the neighborhood. Stairs leading up to it are tucked behind one of a pair of brick walls. The brick was installed with raked (recessed) horizontal joints which soften the overall scale of the walls. The clerestory windows topping the taller of the brick walls bring light into the foyer and a large closet without sacrificing privacy. The living room windows feature a slight tint which provides a greater sense of privacy during the day without having to draw the drapes. An overhang lined on its underside in stained cedar leads to the entry door which again is hidden by one of the brick walls.

Exterior shot of detached garage and office space.
ミネアポリスにある高級な中くらいなミッドセンチュリースタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (ビニールサイディング、アパート・マンション) の写真

With a compact form and several integrated sustainable systems, the Capitol Hill Residence achieves the client’s goals to maximize the site’s views and resources while responding to its micro climate. Some of the sustainable systems are architectural in nature. For example, the roof rainwater collects into a steel entry water feature, day light from a typical overcast Seattle sky penetrates deep into the house through a central translucent slot, and exterior mounted mechanical shades prevent excessive heat gain without sacrificing the view. Hidden systems affect the energy consumption of the house such as the buried geothermal wells and heat pumps that aid in both heating and cooling, and a 30 panel photovoltaic system mounted on the roof feeds electricity back to the grid. The minimal foundation sits within the footprint of the previous house, while the upper floors cantilever off the foundation as if to float above the front entry water feature and surrounding landscape. The house is divided by a sloped translucent ceiling that contains the main circulation space and stair allowing daylight deep into the core. Acrylic cantilevered treads with glazed guards and railings keep the visual appearance of the stair light and airy allowing the living and dining spaces to flow together. While the footprint and overall form of the Capitol Hill Residence were shaped by the restrictions of the site, the architectural and mechanical systems at work define the aesthetic. Working closely with a team of engineers, landscape architects, and solar designers we were able to arrive at an elegant, environmentally sustainable home that achieves the needs of the clients, and fits within the context of the site and surrounding community. (c) Steve Keating Photography

Rear elevation with patio, pool, and deck. The modern design terminates this narrow lot into a full width primary suite balcony and transitional living room to the pool patio.

Entry Deck at Custom Residence
ロサンゼルスにある高級な中くらいなコンテンポラリースタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (混合材屋根) の写真

トロントにある高級な小さなモダンスタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (レンガサイディング、縦張り) の写真

メルボルンにある高級なコンテンポラリースタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (メタルサイディング) の写真

ワシントンD.C.にある高級な中くらいなコンテンポラリースタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (漆喰サイディング、混合材屋根) の写真

Modern cube home with floor to ceiling glass walls. Keuka Studios fabricated both the cable railing on the exterior and glass stair railing on the interior, for this stunning home. Railings by Keuka Studios

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

NEW CONSTRUCTION MODERN HOME. BUILT WITH AN OPEN FLOOR PLAN AND LARGE WINDOWS. NEUTRAL COLOR PALETTE FOR EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR AESTHETICS. MODERN INDUSTRIAL LIVING WITH PRIVACY AND NATURAL LIGHTING THROUGHOUT.

オーランドにある高級な中くらいなトランジショナルスタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (ガラスサイディング) の写真

Todd Goodman
ロサンゼルスにある高級なモダンスタイルのおしゃれな家の外観の写真

Carla Atley
パースにある高級な中くらいなビーチスタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (レンガサイディング) の写真

This home need a quick spruce on their home. The paint on their home had faded and they wanted to update the look with new paint. The home now looks brighter and cheery. Photos by John Gerson. www.choosechi.com

他の地域にある高級な中くらいなコンテンポラリースタイルのおしゃれな家の外観の写真

Architect- Sema Architects
サンディエゴにある高級な中くらいなトランジショナルスタイルのおしゃれな家の外観 (緑の外壁) の写真

A local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral. When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another. We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within. To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves. This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity. Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.

This great home is situated on a corner lot with amazing views of Meydenbauer Bay from several vantage points throughout the home. The mix of exterior materials adds depth and interest to the exterior.