The Evergreen home, designed with Graphisoft ArchiCAD software, won the Best New Home award. For the Pacific Northwest region, renowned for its cutting-edge new architecture, this is an impressive result.
The building is intended for an elderly couple who work from home and plan to spend the rest of their lives there. The project, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian homes, features Art Deco details, including a four-foot stepped cornice ledge, laterally cut oak siding, custom moldings, and a transparent fireplace.
Diane Plesset, an Aging-in-Place Certified Architect, designed the house with design features that allow the space to easily adapt over time to the age-related changes of older hosts.
Another important feature of the project is self-sufficiency. The energy of the sun is used to heat an “evergreen” house built of heat-insulating concrete. The flat roof is ideal for wind turbines and solar panels. The main living areas are illuminated by dedicated low-voltage LED lighting, and large double-glazed windows on all walls provide ample natural light during the day. All floors in the house are covered with eco-friendly cork.
Plesset has been designing buildings with ArchiCAD for almost 12 years. ArchiCAD's Building Information Model (BIM) has allowed it to significantly save budget and time, significantly speed up the design process, organize close cooperation with owners, construction and commercial contractors, and ensure the possibility of frequent changes to the project.
“ArchiCAD allows you to create a virtual model of a building and organize it to be shared with other design participants, both in person and online,” says Plesset. - We can quickly introduce an unlimited number of changes without disrupting the work schedule. In addition, the budget is significantly saved: only 1% of the allocated funds was spent on the creation of our project! The result is a unique home that combines attention to the needs of an elderly couple with architectural integrity."
