Urban Courtyard
Location: Chicago
Project Type: Residential
Completion: 2020
Services:
- Architecture
- Interior
- Design
- Landscape
- 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 efficient 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 rainscreen cladding system, echoing the color and texture of a traditional greystone home, connects historic aesthetics with rainscreen technology. This high performing, sustainable system meets the demands of the new millennial in both function and visual impact.