Showing posts with label modern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern. Show all posts

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Green, Modern and Affordable House



Our firm is proud to announce two new homes designed for the discerning and conscientious homebuyer. Award winning architect, Thomas Roszak and his team of builders at SteelGrass, LLC have joined forces to provide an environmentally effective home for the modern age while still remaining affordable. Buyers have the choice of prefabricated or built-on-site design depending on conditions and local codes. The new homes offer a fusion of contemporary lines mixed with necessary comforts homebuyers are looking for in today's smarter market. These include stylish and efficient floor plans, maintenance-free exterior materials, and automated interiors to maximize comfort and enjoyment while minimizing energy and waste. The interiors provide the warmth and comfort so often neglected in other green housing projects.
Observing how people live today and predicting future changes has inspired two options of environmentally respectable design. Eliminating traditional walls and offering double heighted ceilings creates spacious areas in conservative square feet. Utility without sacrifice is the new standard for today’s modern lifestyle and Thomas Roszak Architecture is offering not one, but two choices.
The 36x60 House
This 3,585 sq. ft. two story home holds five bedrooms and four and a half baths plus a two car garage and large 1,770 sq. ft. basement.
The entire first floor could be seen as one big room with flowing spaces that are simply separated by cabinetry and sliding doors to enhance the spaciousness of the home. Additionally, the smart and attractive cabinetry offers plenty of storage.
Starting with a large, welcoming entry makes an inviting first impression. The dramatic two-story living room with overlook from above is perfect for entertaining. Across the way, lies the dining room transformable for either a formal or casual setting. Both rooms include floor skylights with translucent glass allowing natural light to penetrate the basement while also creating a unique talking point as one of the green initiatives of the home. Ample space was purposefully dedicated to the kitchen to make it large and comfortable for cooking or entertaining. The family/media room sits across with shoji-like screens giving the option to close off the family room from the rest of the house.
The second floor includes a master bedroom suite complete with his and her walk-in closets and a bathroom built for comfort and convenience. This is done by a theme of separation: a steam shower and separate soaker tub, two vanities and a make-up area, plus a separate toilet room. All the elements combine to make the perfect bath fit for functionality.
Four additional bedrooms all on the same floor as the master finally allow for larger families to be together. The library is open to the hall and can double as an office. Having the laundry on this level is just another item on the list of smart design in this house.
The building’s structure including the exterior uses mostly recycled wood, steel, and metal materials. Metal wall cladding and roof come in a variety of different paint colors as well as copper and corten steel. Multi-season sun-shades are incorporated into the exterior cladding systems to block heat in the summer, but welcome solar gain from low winter sun.
The environmentally friendly initiatives continue in every aspect of the home providing attractive alternatives. Natural light pours in through the oversized windows thus reducing the need for artificial lighting. These windows use double insulated glass with a low-emissitivity coating and argon gas in between the panes. The glass is also set within a thermally-separated frame meaning the inside and outside frames do not touch or transmit heat or cold into the home.
Using larger vents allows fresh air to circulate throughout. Photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbine, and geo-thermal heating and cooling are available based on site conditions.
Atop the roof will grow locally available plants that require only natural rainfall to thrive using a rain catchment cistern.
The house will be built with state-of-the-art energy saving insulation (naturally made and eco friendly) throughout the walls and roof, which account for the most significant reason the house will be energy efficient. With the utilization of these systems mentioned herein, the house is capable of being Net-Zero, meaning the house produces all of the energy it requires and perhaps even more, which can be sold back to the grid. By utilizing naturally occurring energy from the earth and sky, a home can immensely decrease its carbon footprint.
The 28x48 House
This 2,224 sq. ft. two story home holds four bedrooms and four and a half baths plus a two-car garage and large 932 sq. ft. basement. It features the similar ideals and floor plans as the larger option.
The total project costs depend on site and local conditions plus land. Hard costs include all construction. Soft costs include the necessary permitting, architecture, engineering, insurance, surveys, and other similar expenses. Final costs can be determined once final drawings are approved and agreed upon by both parties.
Projects Costs = Hard Costs + Soft Costs + Land Costs
♫Having designed and built for five hundred residences, Thomas Roszak Architecture and SteelGrass are very pleased to present these two new exciting homes in the housing market during a time when homebuyers are searching for more options in the green, modern, and affordable sector. For more information or to start your home planning process today please contact Thomas Roszak at thomas@roszak.com.

Click here to download the architectural plans:

Sunday, November 9, 2008

LoveHouse




I am an architect, a builder and a developer. When I designed and built my house, the GlassHouse, in 2002, one of my childhood dreams came true. When I was a kid, I always said I would build a “green” house, and this was before any real environmental inklings existed about housing, it was strictly a house in the color of green, my favorite color. And I think I said it was to have all the gadgets that the Jetson’s house had…that was back when I was about 10 years old.

After graduating from IIT’s School of Architecture in 1989, I worked for David Hovey and got a first hand look at two of his own ultra-contemporary homes; first on Elm Street and then helping build his 2nd house on the lake. I learned about Mies’ Wolf house. I visited Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion and Farnsworth house. I met Michael and Patty Hopkins personally and visited their fantastic home many times. I love Richard Roger’s Zip House; Norman Foster’s personal un-built residence; all of Richard Meier’s homes (many I visited); and also Richard Horden’s and Tadao Ando’s work (my wife and I visited 10 Ando buildings in one day thanks to the Shinkansen and eager cabbies). There is a lineage of these “modern” homes that stretches from the 1920’s and continues to today. We are all constantly dreaming of dwellings and how we’d like to live, not only me or these and other architects mentioned here, but also everyone. Humans have been doing this “dreaming” since caves and huts were first used and invented. Provide shelter, security and foster growth…that’s what a house is for. Technology in homes has always been the most advanced it possibly it could be at any time (cavemen included). This quest for advancing the house concept seems to have stalled (today) except for an elite group of modernists. We need to continue to dream and push technology so everyone can have shelter, security and foster growth, but in a way that expresses our epoch. What does the house of tomorrow look like?

The GlassHouse is a perfect family home and is a pleasure to live in. It looks smart and modern and acts smart and modern. It is a piece of art as much as it is real estate. My wife and I will design and build a new house. We will build an environmentally effective house, using technology and concepts I have been studying recently. We will utilize geo-thermal, solar panels and other energy concepts to make a zero-energy house; the idea is to produce more energy than we use and sell the extra energy back to the grid. Every house will be doing this in 10-25 years. To be a leader in environmental design and show people “which way is forward”. We will utilize recycled materials like reclaimed wood and the sides of shipping containers (I’d also love to incorporate airplane wings, if my wife Justyna lets me). The idea is to build a new house every 7-10 years or so. Each one is an experiment and a physical expression of what I am interested in and want to learn about. I have a team of engineers and consultants who will help me makes this new house the most advanced it can be.

The new house will be called the LoveHouse…love of family and love of the environment. The new house will accommodate everything my family and I want and need in an environmentally friendly way. We will embrace each other and the earth too. We all must.

I am so proud that the GlassHouse won the 2008 American Institute of Architects Interior Architecture award.

My original GreenHouse idea became in reality the built GlassHouse, and now I am dreaming about the LoveHouse.