Residential · Custom home · Sustainable design
Sustainable Modern Home
Capital Region, NY
Project overview
A modern house designed envelope-first: airtight, super-insulated, daylight-driven — and all the better looking for it.
This home was an early proof of a conviction LEAP still designs by: sustainability and architecture are the same project. The building's form — compact massing, south-facing glazing, deep overhangs — does the first round of energy work before any mechanical system is chosen.
A super-insulated, carefully air-sealed envelope shrinks the heating and cooling loads, which shrinks the equipment, which frees budget for the moments the family touches every day: the entry, the kitchen, the screened porch.
The pool terrace and landscape were planned with the same logic — shade where you want it in August, sun where you need it in October.
Case study
Client goals
The clients asked a question ahead of its time: how efficient can a genuinely beautiful house be on a normal construction budget? Comfort, daylight, and low bills were the program; style dogma was not.
Challenges
High-performance construction in that era meant educating bidders, sourcing then-uncommon components, and proving that airtightness targets and architectural ambition could coexist without exotic costs.
Design strategy
Envelope first: compact massing, south glazing shaded by calculated overhangs, superinsulated walls, and meticulous air-sealing details drawn explicitly so bidders priced knowledge rather than fear. Systems shrank accordingly; the savings funded the porch and pool terrace.
Results
Heating loads a fraction of neighborhood norms, permanent comfort in every season, and a design that photographs as architecture first — the sustainability is invisible until the utility bill arrives.
Materials & systems
- Double-stud superinsulated walls
- Fiber-cement and wood cladding
- High-solar-gain south glazing
- Screened porch framing
- Heat-recovery ventilation
- Standing-seam roofing
Timeline
Six months of design, ten of construction — including mid-build blower-door verification.
What this project taught us
Drawing the airtightness details explicitly was the project's quiet victory: performance you specify vaguely you pay for twice. This house became the template for everything the studio builds now.
Gallery
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