Posts Tagged ‘The Castaway House’

March 06, 2012

Rainwater Harvesting at the Castaway House

by: Cavin Costello

Tweet Today’s post is by Cavin Costello, the designer of the Castaway House: The Castaway house is nearing completion and the central focus of the design, the landscape, is currently being installed. Jeremy Stapleton of Synergy Design Lab worked in collaboration with us from the very beginning to create a design that focused on desert indoor/outdoor living. The result was a beautiful and functional landscape design, which Jeremy describes as an “Edible, Medicinal, Sensory & Wildlife Garden.” This garden expands the interior of the house into nature and its neighborhood; all while being water efficient. There are numerous active and…

November 23, 2011

The Guts of the Castaway House

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I love it when the guts of a building are hanging out for all to see because it gives you an appreciation of all the systems that are in place to meet our HVAC, electrical and plumbing needs and not to mention all the work it takes to build a structure that is sound, water-proof, and air-tight where you want it to be. The Castaway House is at a stage where you can see all its guts hanging out, which presents an awesome opportunity to share what a house’s electrical and plumbing systems look like, as well as what…

March 09, 2011

Exploring the Public Face of a Residence at the Castaway House

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week, when I interviewed architect Marlene Imirzian (I’ll be posting the interview next week), she said that every project has a public aspect to it, even private residences. What she meant was that even houses have a way to address the street, have a front yard that the public can see, and has a front door for the public to knock on. Good architecture addresses the public face of the house with intention. At the Castaway House, we have layers of space that lead from the public to the private. The diagram below, created by Cavin, illustrates what…

March 02, 2011

Retaining the Existing Roof Structure at the Castaway House

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet In this update: I. Claire walks us through the multiple considerations that go into every decision II.The idea of a triple bottom line approach III. An illustration of the stack ventilation concept created by Cavin I. Claire at the Site II. The Triple Bottom Line Approach Claire talked about the multiple benefits of keeping the existing wood roof structure of this 1950s house and actually exposing it as a vaulted ceiling in the remodel. We try to use the triple bottom line to make most of the decisions at Castaway House. In the case of the existing roof…

February 23, 2011

The Importance of Place at the Castaway House

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet In this update: I. Claire talks about the outdoor lifestyle in Phoenix II. The urban context of the Castaway House III. A quick survey on modes of transportation Outdoor Lifestyle: Urban Context: We’re designing for a sustainable lifestyle at Castaway House. A huge part of leading a sustainable lifestyle is where you live. Nowadays, big home builders are building new subdivisions way out in the outer suburbs, but are claiming to be green. Here at Blooming Rock and The Ranch Mine, we believe that location and place are fundamental to sustainability. Those “green” homes way out in the…