Seed Architecture Studio's SIPs House begins to bloom

About 15 minutes' drive from downtown near the intersection of 45th and Lombard is the SIPs House, the first built project to be realized by Seed Architecture Studio. Although it was included in April of this year on the 11xDesign homes tour (featuring local up-and-coming designer-developer work), the house was still under construction at the time. Now, as a recent visit showed, the completed house is a striking composition of integrated cubes and contrasting textures. 

Targeted to achieve a Platinum LEED rating, the SIPs House takes its name from the structurally insulated panels that were used in the building's construction. What are structurally insulated panels? Here's how they are defined by the Structurally Insulated Panel Association, with apologies if this sounds too much like a marketing pamphlet:

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are high performance building panels used in floors, walls, and roofs for residential and light commercial buildings. The panels are typically made by sandwiching a core of rigid foam plastic insulation between two structural skins of oriented strand board (OSB). Other skin material can be used for specific purposes. SIPs are manufactured under factory controlled conditions and can be custom designed for each home.

Building with SIPs generally costs about the same as building with wood frame construction, when you factor in the labor savings resulting from shorter construction time and less job-site waste. Other savings are realized because less expensive heating and cooling systems are required with SIP construction.

This is actually the first house in Portland with floors, walls and a roof made of structurally insulated panels. It is a US Department of Energy Building America demonstration project and also was a City of Portland Green Investment Fund grant winner. The architects also say it is built to resist forces 75 percent stronger than a standard code-built home. So it'd be a good place to be when the Big One of an earthquake comes, or whatever the Mayans believe is coming in 2012.

The house is set further back from the street (an unkempt, partially unpaved bit of an eyesore), with the idea that the front yard can become an active place to spend time or use for growing crops or landscape. The co-developers of the project, David and Wendy Cohan, have an emphasis on sustainable living, and the house was constructed with those principles in mind: bamboo cabinetry, VOC-free paint, an efficient heat-recovery ventilation system.

The exterior composition can seem slightly imposing at first, or at least it did to me, simply because the front of the house is a largely blank wall without the kind of large window we're used to having at eye level. Instead, the glassy transparency happens more at the building's tucked-in corner that's further into the property, via sliding glass kitchen doors. The windows, which account for about 15 percent of the total exterior, were placed to maximize how much natural light could be brought in rather than with views. For this reason, corner windows are often favored for how they can reflect light onto multiple walls and other surfaces. I felt better about the missing big front window when standing inside the house, which was full of bountiful illumination without a single electric light on.

Standing inside the center of the SIPs House, one still gets a cinematic sense of what is transpiring outside, but there is a greater sense of privacy that comes with it. One of the architects from SEED, Darin Dougherty (whose resume includes stints at Architropolis and TVA Architects), told me they wanted to place windows in a way that they wouldn't need coverings, thereby keeping the house's natural illumination uncompromised when people try to avoid the fishbowl effect.

The front portion of the house contains the living room, which is attached to a double-height kitchen area. Overlooking that vast volume of space is an upstairs walkway connecting the bedrooms there to a rooftop deck.

Once standing on the deck, I got a good look at the upper facade's reclaimed wood panels, which came from a barn in Happy Valley. The panels have that beautiful weathered-wood look, which also means they won't fade or stain over time quite as much as some of the newer wood-clad buildings I've seen around town already starting to show wear. Not only is the texture of the wood itself beautiful, but the slightly mismatched sizes and widths of the boards help give the house more of a three dimensional and less of an outright boxy visual quality.

Contrasting the wood portion of the facade is weathered steel, which achieves a similarly scruffy texture that, like many contemporary buildings of this era, enlivens the simple form. Weathered steel, better known by its brand name, Cor-Ten, is a popular material these days, and it will be intriguing to see if it is a fad or something more lasting. The material makes sense here, though, in how it contrasts with the wood for an overall gritty, tactile, organic surface.

Pulverizing as the economy has been for the architecture profession, Seed seems to be staying relatively busy. They have a few other residential projects on the way, as you can see in the renderings below. The firm doesn't intend to keep designing just single family homes forever, but they're certainly off to a fine start.

Comments

[Jim Heuer]

It's great to see talented architects producing cutting edge residential work in middle-class sized homes. So much modern residential output expresses poorly executed references to "traditional" designs, which, quite frankly, were better in their original incarnations.

However, I must respond to the comment about Cor-Ten, as possibly being a "fad". Cor-Ten has been around for many years, and was originally used for bridges and railroad cars (which are still important uses), but it hit the architectural "big time" in Chicago way back in 1965 with the opening of the Chicago City Center (now Daley Plaza) designed by Jacques Brownson of the firm C. F. Murphy Associates, which is 648 feet tall and clad entirely in Cor-Ten (which understandably is also part of the structure).

Just two years after the building was completed, the (in)famous Picasso sculpture that has become an icon of the city of Chicago was built in the plaza at the base of the City Center building -- again entirely of Cor-Ten steel.

Maybe a "fad" but surely an enduring one.

[ws]

Generally, I like the simple shape of this house, and that it has a roof deck. The impression I get from the picture though, is that it's closed in...not enough windows or something.

The Cor-ten looks great in those pictures. How it looks 10 to 20 to 50 years down the road is something I'm not sure about. Rusty, weathered finishes are appealing enough though. I like old steel corrugated and galvanized roofing that's turned grey with rusty spots here and there... a lot. The stuff seems to easily last 50 years, and is very resistant to leaking.

The set-back measure taken here is interesting. I believe there's a history to how and why the set-back required in city ordinances came to be, but I know little about it. Roughly speaking, my impression is that it came about so people wouldn't build their house right next to the street or sidewalk so as allow th maximum square footage for the back yard.

The set-back often means a minimum square footage for the front yard that's more or less wasted space that people have to maintain. As far as this house is set back, it looks as though the owners could plant a substantial hedge barrier and still have room to put in a very enjoyable front garden.

[Jonathan]

I agree with Brian that the outside of the house can feel a little harsh, but the interior more than makes up for it. This is a pretty cool house and good for SEED for making it happen.

[Colleen]

When you see the house in person the harshness just isn't there. It has a very refined earthen feel to it. Well done!

[dennis]

Very impressive, there are not that many good examples of SIP built houses yet that dont try to hide behind faux classical looks.

This house definitely proves that SIPs can be used well to design a well crafted home that is not only modern, but comfortably looking to live in.

I hope Portland sees more developments like this for various income levels. Also, SIPs should be a staple in modern house building, it is a technology that is severely underused at the moment.

[dennis]

also, I am really curious what the floorplans look for this house...if it is possible for you to get a copy of them to post here.

[Darin]

not mentioned in the posting - the house is for sale.

floor plans (click the 'design' tab) and other information can be found on the project blog:

www.sipshousepdx.com

[Mark]

The longer I am in this craft the more impressed with the ability of northwest weather to destroy over time that which is so special when it is first built. I would like to see structures designed and built to be around for at least one hundred years.

Although this may be very design forward I see it as extremely difficult to execute so that it will remain sound and handsome in 2109.

[Don Rogers]

Interesting presentation. I would suggest however that you make it clear that a conventional floor plan and building style would also lend itself to the use of SIP. A relative build a 6000 sq ft SIP home in Wyoming which is beautiful, strong, functional, economical to heat and cool with the use of atrim on southern exposure. It will be around in 2109.

[Peter Stubbs]

Mark: I have to say I'm pretty sure this house is designed pretty much exactly the way you were hoping. Corten weathers and lasts nicely (unlike many exterior surfaces) and the barn wood is pretty much the way it's going to look for decades at the least. This isn't a shiny steel building that will tarnish over time, at least from what I can gather. As for sound and handsome, you wouldn't believe the amount of work my 1909 house needs (and has needed) both aesthetically and as far as structural and building envelope issues go. (For the record we have huge CMU blocks as exterior cladding. Original to the building. Really.)

I'm more curious as to the resiliency of the roof membrane. No real doubts, but I'd love to see a detailed section.

[Jonathan]

I think this house will weather pretty well.