Hachidori 蜂鳥

...into an empty nest household. With kids off to college, Jenny Berg (my wife) and I (John Mead) set out to downsize our home and to simplify by seeking out a minimalist design aesthetic that brings harmony to our environmentally considerate lifestyle. Having worked in the green building realm since 2006 lent me years of experience with different techniques for creating efficient, durable and beautiful homes. At the start of my construction career, I built a home for my family that helped launch my business, and this home is a nice bookend as I sold my construction company to my business partner during the construction.

To achieve our goals, we hired longtime friend and colleague Matt Daby of M.O.Daby Design. Matt and I first met on a LEED home project in Happy Valley for a former board member of Solar Oregon. Matt’s passion is for modern design, and his experience with energy efficient and environmentally friendly dwellings is outstanding, so immediately we were off to a great start. Rounding out the design team with Angela Mechaley, also of M.O.Daby design, for our interiors kept the design intent on track through the selections and applications of materials.

Our passion for building a net zero energy and net zero water home has been driven by the desire to stand behind our values of fighting climate change. With conditions worsening around the world as the heating of the Earth wreaks havoc on ecosystems in clear and vivid ways, the imperative for people who recognize the problem to take action is more important now than ever before. Building smaller, building for durability, building for beauty, building for efficiency are all steps that were easy for us to embrace, because if not us, then who do we look to to take the steps needed to slow down and hopefully reverse the course of over consumption?

The home serves one more purpose as well. Not ready to hang up my hammer permanently, I launched a new business during the process. Vesuvian Forge builds elevated concrete surfaces such as countertops, outdoor kitchens, fire tables, furniture and more. The pull into the world of architectural concrete comes from the fact that concrete has a huge carbon footprint. About 7%-8% of the world’s carbon emissions come from producing concrete. Utilizing innovative low carbon footprint materials and exploring carbon sequestration in the form of biochar is driving the research and development arm of the business, and Hachidori is a fine backdrop for some of our concrete products.

...it was important for the elements of the home to work together harmoniously to achieve our goals. For example, our heat pump water heater needs 1,000 cubic feet of airspace, not inside the home’s envelope but also not outside because it pulls heat out of the ambient air in its thermodynamic cycle. If the home had a garage or a basement, these would be ideal locations. After much rumination we decided to put the water heater in the crawlspace. Of course to make a small section of the crawlspace tall enough for the water heater naturally led us down the path of putting a wine cellar underneath Jenny’s closet. With a 9 ft by 11 ft concrete pad with concrete walls we are taking advantage of the cool air emitted by the heat pump water heater to also keep our wine chilled!

The planted rooftop is another example of systems working together. With 6” of soil above our engineered roof joists, the ambient air temperature doesn’t immediately affect the temperature that the house sees. Because of the thermal mass, it takes quite a while for the soil to heat up, and with cool evenings the base of the soil keeps a nice even temperature. In the heat of the summer, we put this idea to the test by checking the temperatures on a hot 95-degree day. The sun heated the surface of the soil up to 124 degrees F… but digging down to the bottom of the soil, the temperature was only 86 degrees F for a difference of nearly 40 degrees F! We also checked the temperature of the neighboring house roof with our laser thermometer, and its darker shingles were 145 degrees F. The planted rooftop also provides filtering for our rainwater collection. The evaporative cooling from the plants should also cool the solar array and boost its efficiency.

The exterior siding of the house is Shou Shugi Ban and sits atop 3” of mineral wool insulation. Both the charred siding and the exterior insulation provide fire resistance in addition to the insulation factor. With the durability of the blackened cedar enhanced by a rainscreen, the precious resources that went into the cladding of the house will be preserved for many years to come.