Urban Courtyard

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A Beautiful Chicago Home Design

Our clients, wanting to build a new home on a classic Chicago street lined with greystones, came to us with the question, “If we were to build a greystone today, what would it look like?” A clean-lined, modestly sized, and sustainable home using LEED for Homes Gold Standards, was our answer.

Our holistic design strategy involved creating a private, restful, energy-efficient home with both highly insulated exterior walls and a private light garden in the center of the home. These two features worked together like a finely tuned instrument providing deep daylighting, a private connection to nature in the middle of a busy city, and energy efficiency that is performing at 30% more efficiently than code.

To control cost and meet the sustainability demands, we designed the structure of the home entirely out of wood - a renewable material also harvested using FSC guidelines. The limestone-colored concrete rain-screen cladding system, echoing the color and texture of a traditional greystone home, connects historic aesthetics with rain-screen technology. This high-performing, sustainable system meets the demands of the new millennial in both function and visual impact.

Contact Elements Architectural Group in Chicago to request a consultation, or ask us a question.