Size Matters, Along with Good Design and High Performance

On Earth Day, Seattle- and Portland-based construction company Hammer & Hand unveiled the winners of perFORM 2014: A House Design Competition. The competition challenged emerging architecture professionals to fuse high design with high performance building in the design of a single-family house in Seattle that achieves Passive House-like levels of energy performance while being resourceful, replicable, and beautiful.

Per Sam Hagerman, co-owner of Hammer & Hand:

We developed this design competition to support young architects and to demonstrate that high design goes hand-in-hand with high performance building. On this Earth Day we’re pleased to share five exciting examples of the fusion of good design with climate-friendly energy performance.

While it is a myth that green buildings are ugly and beautiful buildings burn energy, these notions had to come from somewhere. Early “eco” buildings were often earthy DIY affairs. Modernist jewel boxes paid little or no attention to energy performance. Today, thanks to advances in building technology, architectural training, and builder know-how, high performance green building and high design can complement one another. In fact, the design power that building science confers may become high design’s lifeline in coming decades as the imperative for more and more efficient buildings increases.

First Place Winner

Cameron Huber, an architectural student at the University of Oregon, won the $2000 first place award for his entry, entitled “HO[MIN]ID.” Cameron’s design impressed the jury with its restraint, purity of form, friendliness to neighborhood context, and understanding of energy performance within a holistic approach to sustainability. For Cameron, “size matters.” His design for the house at 1581 square foot maximizes the the amount of usable space while remaining compact and humble in the context of the proposed neighborhood.

 

Runners-Up

The perFORM 2014 jury awarded four runners-up $1000 each in recognition of the quality of their work.  Design boards and project narratives can be viewed online via links below or in person at the exhibit for several weeks hosted at Hammer & Hand’s Seattle office in the super green, soon to be Living Building Challenge certified Bullitt Center at 1501 E Madison Street #250, Seattle, WA, 98122.

• Steve Clark, student at Montana State University: perFORM House
• Jacob Dunn, student at University of Idaho Integrated Design Lab: ChronoHouse
• Samuel Kraft, architectural intern at Seek Architecture: Home faber
• Andrew Schenk, student at Ball State University: Beautiful Box

The Jury

The perFORM 2014 jury was made up of noted architects, educators, and builders from Seattle and Portland, including:

• Daniel Friedman, University of Washington College of Built Environments
• Jim Graham, Graham Baba Architects
• Sam Hagerman, Hammer & Hand
• Gladys Ly-Au Young, Sundberg Kennedy Ly-Au Young Architects
• Robert Peña (perFORM Advisor), University of Washington Integrated Design Lab
• Cory Hawbecker, Holst Architecture

Hammer & Hand is dedicated to inciting evolution in building through service, science and craft. The firm collaborates with clients and architects to build the best of Portland and Seattle, from commercial tenant improvements, to classic remodels, to high performance new construction.