ECOMAISONS

TEAM: SO Studio
CLIENT: Private
LOCATION: Lafayette, Louisiana 
COMPLETION: 2012
AWARDS: Current InDesign Bronze Award

These four eco-friendly houses in Lafayette, Louisiana are designed with a local urban Creole typology in mind while referring to the craftsmen houses in their neighborhood. Sculpturally designed, four “tubes” sit upon a continuous urban wall, a historic feature in Louisiana cities. Each one rhythmically alternates in shape, giving some variation beyond color and material. These “tubes” cantilever over the wall to create upper-story galleries, an undeniable part of Louisiana historic architecture.

The inset walls of the “tubes” are stud walls sandwiched with white polycarbonate allowing plenty of natural light during the day while becoming lanterns at night that give a hint of what is happening inside each house by revealing lights on or off as well as backlighting residents as they occupy the galleries. At night the studs and diagonal bracing show through as silhouettes creating a modern abstraction of the briquettes-entre-poteaux construction used by early Louisiana colonists.

Set in a double-height space next to the open-riser stair, the kitchen becomes the focal point of the house, the modern-day “hearth” in any Louisiana home as the most social place for entertaining. The cabinets of the kitchen “continue” up the 24 foot high wall as matching wood paneling making a sort of chimney in the center of the house.

The light from a clerestory window above, as well as the polycarbonate wall in the study, casts light down the double-height space, over the stair, and into the kitchen. The double-height space also helps to create stacked ventilation for passive cooling on cool days or evenings.

As high-performance houses, they conserve energy with highly efficient windows, foam and EPS insulation, a multi-speed HVAC system, and on-demand water heating. As healthy houses, they contain only low- and no-VOC (low off-gassing) paints, flooring, and caulks; a very tight air filter and fresh air intake. As durable houses they are made with high-performance house wrap, fiber-cement boards as cladding, vinyl windows, and exterior doors, solid core interior doors, low- to no- maintenance flooring, and waterproof baseboards.