The backyard landscaping is populated by drought-resistant plants and pervious pavers that allow water to drain down to the aquifer.
Scardina says that during construction, 98% of all the construction material on site was diverted from the landfill, with the contractor and the subs sorting the material and making sure it was either reused in the project or sent “to some other eco-friendly place.”
“I think I’ve always been a sustainable designer,” Scardina says after talking about the project and all its details. “I know there was the period when people’s consciousness was raised and we got on this slow curve to where we are today, but, like I said, thanks to my grandmother, I always had this approach as part of how I design.
“Everything I’ve done has been compact, space efficienct, energy efficienct, and motion efficient,” he says. “I’ve always been there.”
IN THE WORKS
Paolo Design Group’s latest green undertaking is a new custom home currently entering the final, landscaping phase of the project and also slated to earn LEED Platinum, according to firm principal Paul “Paolo” Scardina.
“I guess I’d describe the home, aesthetically speaking, as a new century Tuscan,’” Scardina says. “It’s very modern but has a very natural Tuscan feel... the roof is flat, and the detached garage has a vegetative roof on it to allow the homeowners to do some gardening.”
“It also has an endless pool inside the house itself, and the entire structure is south facing, so there were lots of opportunity to take advantage of passive solar. In fact, it’s got a solar heat gain room,” he says.
The big difference between this project, known as the Eagle Creek Chocolate House, and the subject of the Scardina’s first LEED Platinum project is the material used for the framing of the structure.
In this case, the house was built using a product called Faswall, an insulated concrete form wall system. “It’s made of reclaimed wood chips salvaged from old wood pallets, which are submerged in this kind of cementitious slurry that causes the wood to petrify yet preserves its insulative qualities,” Scardina says.
The material is formed into blocks, that have partial insulated core holes running through them, making them light and easy to stack into place. The holes are then filled with cement and reinforced rebar.
“What you end up with is a thermal mass that’s simply amazing, with window sills that are very deep. It’s kind of like being in a modern adobe home,” Scardina says.
The house sits on 20 acres, uphill from what had been the site of the homeowner’s long time and very traditional manufactured home.
Scardina says they bought the home because of the property’s beautiful mountain views.
“Their old home was very modest. And all the while they lived there, they looked at the land and its potential and dreamed of building the home of their dreams,” he says.
The site of the spectacular house is barely 100 feet from their soon-to-be former residence. It was the perfect location. It also confronted them with a significant choice.
“At the top of the hill was a stand of very old fir trees that the homeowners had become attached to and even named Old Bob,’” Scardina says.
Because there was really no alternative site on the property that offered the views the client wanted, the trees were cut down. However, rather than discard them, Scardina had them milled, cured, and dried on-site and then used them to build the structural beams that run across the great room, the tongue-and-groove beams in the ceiling, and even some of the siding on the garage.
“As a result of using those trees, the lumber package for this project was actually very small,” Scardina says.
Because the home was new construction, the architect installed radiant heat under the concrete floor. The project also incorporates solar power and a ground source heat pump into its design.
“It’s got all kinds of loops feeding into one another, boosting its efficiencies,” Scardina says.
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