Modern Wood Cladding House | Michigan Lake House | Leelanau County | Michigan | Desai Chia Architecture

Perched on a woodland bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, this home, designed in collaboration with Environment Architects (AOR) of Traverse City, MI, is an assemblage of three offset structures that play off each other— the ‘gathering’ structure contains the living room, kitchen and a covered 'vista' seating terrace; the two 'sleeping' structures house the master bedroom suite and three children's bedrooms. A dining area breezeway connects all three structures.....more

Modern Concrete House | Long Horizontals| Charlevoix | Thellend Fortin Architectes

Spatially, rooms are organized around an inverted plan that locates bedroom suites at the garden level. Set in concrete, they are anchored in the site’s topography. At ground level, living spaces panelled in light wood, each one leading into the next, are characterized by different heights that allow definition of different uses. The dining room, airy and full-windowed, pulls away from the main building as it soars toward the horizon. Massive, vertical concrete chimneys provide a striking contrast with transparent openings and the lightness of wooden volumes built on an overhang.

The long horizontals unfurl to accentuate the landscape......more

Vacation Home Design | Carton Residence | Michigan | Von Weise Associates

To retain the tranquility of the natural sloped site, the volumes of this vacation home are arranged to frame the horizon line of Lake Michigan to the west. The axis of the main house emphasizes this view, while perpendicular elements such as the entry bridge, natural-cedar stair hall, and indoor/outdoor dining area add a richness to the design by bringing the outdoors to the interior on the perpendicular axis. The two volumes are set lightly atop a stone plinth and thus appear to float gently in the bowl-shaped ravine. A series of framed views occur throughout the house capturing snapshots of the surrounding trees, lake, and ravine.......more

Greentree Residence | Bloomfield Township, Michigan | Hue Projects

Originally built in 1945 by the architect Wallace Frost, this historic Modern home endured years of neglect, rendering it unlivable and in a state of disrepair.
The shared goal of the client and architect was the restoration of the home’s original design intention and details, along with the seamless integration of an addition and customizations that better fit the family’s contemporary lifestyle.
Because the home was built using slab on grade construction, everything but the walls had to be removed so that a new concrete slab could be installed.
Carefully selected aggregate and dark pigment were added to the new slab to create a terrazzo-like surface.
All of the built-in furniture and cabinetry was thoroughly documented before removal. Millwork and ceiling boards that had been layered with paint were replaced with European Beech, a variety of wood commonly associated with Modern furniture design.
Italian travertine, another material popular in the era, was used as an accent throughout the home.
A simple box-like second story addition was added at the nexus of three soaring roof forms. Originally a modest gable, the addition created an additional bedroom and a focal point at this central intersection.
Exterior surfaces once clad in aluminum siding were replaced with white cement fiberboard panels to match the new addition and create a more cohesive composition.....more

Hills Residence Bloomfield Township, Michigan By Hue Projects

Hills Residence
Bloomfield Township, Michigan
2007 This home was built for a young family of five who wanted to simplify the way they live. Sited in a Detroit neighborhood full of mid-century ranches, the project builds upon the tradition of Modern residential architecture while looking forward to environmental stewardship.
A prefabricated structural system, reclaimed waste stream materials, and a highly efficient building envelope are just some of the green elements that come together to create the unique, high-performance structure.
Embracing eco-friendly building practices led to the selection of materials with unique aesthetic qualities that became vital aspects of the home’s design.
From the road, the low-sloping hipped roof seems in context with its neighbors.
Taking advantage of the existing grades that fall away to the perimeter of the property, the hip roof is not seen as you walk around the home.
Instead you look up to a continuous, rectangular wood surface that ties together the home’s three organizational zones.
These zones (public, family and service) eliminate unneeded space and are distinguished by the materials used to construct them.
The public area is defined by glass partitions set into a post & beam wood frame.
Covered exterior areas become extensions of the public area and open the interior to the site. Surfaces are continuous inside and out at this part of home, reinforcing the feeling of a single space.
Book-ending the central public area are the wood-clad family zone and the stone-clad service zone. The warm colors of the wood create a comfortable family area while the slate creates a sense of permanence and stability.

The home was built using structural insulated panels (SIPs) on a glulam frame, locally-fabricated and assembled on-site. This hugely reduced construction waste and saved months compared to conventional framing. With nearly twice the insulating value of batt insulation, the panels create a very efficient building envelope that virtually eliminates air leakage and the possibility for mold growth.

Rather than quarrying new stone for cladding, the project reclaims a byproduct of the slate roof tile manufacturing process. These sculpings are left over blocks of slate too small to be further split into roof shingles. Here, the scrap material is repurposed as cladding and an interior fireplace.

Normally used as decking because of its maintenance-free durability, ipê is installed here as a uniquely detailed rainscreen to help the building breathe. The wood is sourced from a supplier devoted to sound purchasing policies which reinforce environmentally responsible forestry practices.

All wood stains, paints and sealants are low-VOC, water-based coatings. In many cases the finishes have no volatile organic compounds.

Pigment was added to the concrete floor slab, and the aggregate was carefully selected, so that the floors could be ground, polished and left exposed throughout the home. The concrete thus becomes the finished floor, eliminating the need for additional floor coverings. The large mass further acts as a thermal battery, slowly releasing heat in the winter and keeping the house cool in the summer. Buried within the concrete is a hydronic, radiant heating system driven by a high-efficiency boiler.

The standing-seam metal roof, gutters and downspouts are a zinc alloy. With exposure to the elements, the alloy naturally forms a protective coating of zinc carbonate, making the roof maintenance-free for generations. Compared to other metals, the energy consumption for zinc extraction and processing is extremely low. Emissions during smelting are at an environmental standards minimum. And, the high value of scrap zinc provide economic reasons for recycling, resulting in a recycling rate of 90%.

HUE Projects also acted as construction manager, working on-site throughout the construction of the home and, in some cases, building specific parts of the house. During construction, a shop was setup in the basement to pre-cut and pre-drill each piece of ipê before it was finished by the painter......more