“The owner was downsizing from a very large house and moving closer to his family to spend more time with his grandchildren,” explains Dan Welch, founder of [bundle] design studio, the South Bellingham, Washington infill project’s architecture and design firm. “He had a desire to build a low environmental impact home that was very comfortable with healthy materials and indoor air quality.”
[bundle]’s portfolio focuses on Passive House and high-performance net-positive energy projects. The customer’s specifications were “perfectly in line with [our] philosophy and existing work,” Welch notes.
Name: Pond View House, Bellingham, Washington
Builder: Kota Construction
Architect/Designer: Dan Welch and Zach Jorgensen, [bundle] design studio
Interior Designer: Lori Radder
Photographer: Sheila Say, Sheila Say Photography
The Pond View House seemingly had everything going for it in terms of location—close to city amenities while within walking distance of a forested city park, scenic pond and popular recreational trail—but remained undeveloped for years. Various owners were discouraged by the existing public driveway, which cut diagonally through the site to provide access to an additional five homes.
Due to the constraint of the existing driveway, the site design was split, with the house situated on the east overlooking the park and the shop on the west to provide easy access and privacy from existing homes, according to Welch.
“The owner’s goal was to create a home that allowed for single floor living with additional rooms for guests and family,” he says. “The design takes advantage of the site’s existing downhill slope to the northeast by providing all the primary living spaces on the main floor with a daylight basement, providing additional guests and mechanical space on a reduced footprint.”
Limited openings to the west reduce intrusive headlights and increased privacy from the public driveway. To the east, the living spaces open to the forest with tall windows, doors, decks, and patios that overlook the pond.
Building a home utilizing sustainable construction materials and methods was also a key priority for the owner, Welch notes. The Pond View House uses Passive House principles, including continuous insulation, airtight construction, high-performance windows and doors, thermal bridge-free detailing, and heat recovery ventilation.
Being crafted with simple lines, zero-VOC finishes, Passive House air tightness, and steel siding will ensure the home is durable, comfortable, ages beautifully with time, and has very low operating costs, Welch adds.
The home’s carbon footprint is significantly reduced thanks to all-wood framing made with engineered wood, and trusses for floors and roof systems. Carbon-sequestering cork—a renewable resource that doesn’t require the harvesting of a tree—is used for exterior insulation, while cellulose is for interior cavity insulation.
The two-bedroom home is of modest size, reducing the amount of materials needed, Welch adds.
The house, and an accompanying workshop, are also all electric, thanks to a photovoltaic array that supplies most of the energy needed during the year. The shop’s roof, in particular, is orientated directly south with a slope optimized for maximum solar capture. Building assemblies and features such as an energy-saving HVAC enable the project to actually end up net positive in terms of electricity generated.
Because the new house is directly adjacent to a forested park, the owner wanted to be considerate of the natural setting, Welch notes. Disturbed land was restored with native plants and trees, and incorporates large infiltration trenches that allow the stormwater to return to the forest.
All of these qualities make for a good “how to” lesson, according to Theresa
Gilbride, a building energy efficiency researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and a judge for Green Builder’s 2023 Green Home of the Year (GHOTY). The Pond View House is the year’s winner in the Off-site Construction category. “The home’s Passive House principles are a great example to other building professionals,” she notes.
Appliances: Bosch
Water Resistive Barrier: Henry Blueskin
Cabinets, Shelves, Millwork: Smith and Vallee
Countertops: Quartz
Decks: Thermory wood decking
Doors and Hardware: Westeck
Electrical: Express Electric
Exterior Finishes: Metal siding, cedar siding, fiber cement siding
Flooring: TMBR Flooring, Big Sur
Garage Doors: Overhead door
HVAC/Ducts: Daikin heat pump
Insulation: Thermacork exterior insulation; Greenfiber cellulose cavity insulation
Lighting: West Elm, CB2, Etsy
Paints and Stains: Benjamin Moore; White Dove
Plumbing/Plumbing Fixtures: Kohler
Renewable Energy Systems (solar, wind, etc.): Barron Heating
Roof: Precision Roofing
Ventilation: Zehnder CA350
Water Heating: Rheem HPWH
Window Coverings: Bali motorized blinds
Windows, Skylights, Patio Doors: Westeck windows
As we move from one major lifestyle challenge—an emergent pandemic—to another, with historic storms and record heat, builders have been continuously challenged to adapt. Green Builder’s 2023 Green Home of the Year winners are well constructed, energy efficient and creatively designed. But our grand winner topped them all by emphasizing the local economy and the environment.
Our expert panel of judges evaluated projects in terms of overall sustainability, resilience, synergy with the environment, affordability, creativity and the depth of science employed.