Mindful choices: when going for green, every decision is earthshaking

Residential Architect, March, 2005 by Nigel F. Maynard, Meghan Drueding

green pastures

It's one thing for architects to design environmentally friendly houses for well-heeled, right-thinking clients; it's another for them to put their own money where their principles are. Material decisions, budgetary limitations, and faith in emerging technologies take on new meaning when you're footing the bill and living with the results. The advantage is that the money goes exactly where it's needed most. That's how Peggy and Paul Duncker managed to design and build this energy-efficient green home for an astoundingly thrifty $95 per square foot in the pricey Jackson Hole, Wyo., area

Transplants from New York City, the Dunckers are environmentally conscious architects who are also acutely sensitive to context. So they shunned the Miesian glass box and instead drew inspiration from the site's agrarian roots. "Most of the buildable area is old agricultural fields," says Paul. Located about a 1/4-mile from the Teton Mountain range, the site nestles into the valley floor "in the lowest and coldest point in Jackson Hole Valley," adds Paul, a principal at Handson Design; his wife, Peggy, is a principal at Tobler Duncker Architects.

To combat the harsh climate, the couple built the house's shell with double-glazed low-E windows and structural insulated panels (SIPs)--rigid foam insulation sandwiched between two layers of plywood or oriented strand board. The system yielded an R-23 wall and an R-40 roof. "When we compared SIPs to [building with] stick framing, sheathing, and housewrap, there were significant benefits," Paul says. Along with providing the tight envelope, SIPs minimized the use of solid timber. "Instead of a stud every 16 or 24 inches," Paul explains, "the walls only have a spline every 8 feet."

The Dunckers went an extra step, rejecting a conventional HVAC system in favor of a ground-source geothermal heat pump for radiant heat. Although it's one of the most energy-efficient systems around, it's also expensive. At $10,000, the Duncker's system cost about $3,000 more than forced-air, but a $3,000 credit from the local utility covered the difference. "The electricity just runs the machinery," says Paul.

The mudroom features post-tension concrete masonry units filled with a spray foam insulation made from tree sap. Left unfinished, they eliminated the need for paint. Further winnowing the new timber order, the Dunckers used parallam posts and beams, engineered floor joists, MDF cabinetry, and reclaimed wood elsewhere in the house.

Budget challenges notwithstanding, the home was an excellent technical exercise for the couple, who've been adding more green principles to their respective practices. Their stealth agenda was accomplished too: to demonstrate that an earth-friendly house doesn't have to look, well, earthy. "That's an inaccurate preconception," says Paul. "A true green house can look like anything you want it to."--n.f.m.

duncker residence, wilson wyo.

architect: paul duncker, handson design and peggy duncker. tobler duncker architects, wilson

general contractor: Paul and Peggy Duncker, Wilson; project size: 1,900 square feet; site size: 0.5 acre; construction cost: $95 per square foot; photos: Greg Hursley

saving grace

Remember your grandmother who never threw anything away? She saved old magazines, used wrapping paper, and out-of-style clothes because she never knew when she might need them. Wynne Yelland, AIA, and Paul Neseth, AIA, know how she felt. The partners at Minneapolis design/build firm LOCUS Architecture habitually hang onto leftover building elements for possible future use. "We keep stuff around, in my garage and Wynne's garage and our construction supervisor's garage," says Neseth. "It's both an asset and a disease."

When their firm experienced a slowdown in 2003, it seemed like the perfect time to try out a long-cherished idea-a sustainable, progressively designed house, built on spec, that would showcase their ability to turn salvage into splendor. They bought an outdated 1950s ranch house in Minneapolis, dubbed it nowhaus 01, and started in on demolition. "We had a lull in our construction schedule, and it gave us something to keep our guys busy," says Yelland. They remodeled the old house substantially, adding a floor and a half and opening up the plan. And they kept and reused original fixtures, framing lumber, and sheathing, designing a temporary rack in the garage to keep salvaged parts organized and close at hand.

In addition to its own stockpiles, LOCUS also seeks out reclaimed materials in the off-cut and remnant stacks at local factories. During construction of nowhaus, for example, an artist friend of Yelland and Neseth's tipped them off to a local billboard company with a warehouse full of scraps. The discarded billboard pieces ended up as backing for the house's translucent plastic siding, and the resulting ghostlike graphics patterning the exterior walls became one of the project's most striking features. Other recycled materials came from a local salvage contractor. LOCUS's design/build nature gives it the ability to accommodate found building elements at any stage in the construction process, which cuts down on material costs, jobsite waste, and embodied energy.