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A 1980s Ranch House Transforms Into an Architectural Studio and Home
“Thinking back, I’ve been interested in energy efficiency since elementary school,” says Mark Graham, co-founder, and principal of Gehrung + Graham located in Charlottesville, Virginia. As an architect, he adds, “I’m always looking for ways in which to innovate, especially in the realms of energy performance.”
Graham received a Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 1997, building on the Master of Science in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he received in 1994. He’s worked for several firms well-recognized in the design world for progressive approaches to sustainability.
One was William McDonough + Partners. McDonough is the author, with German chemist Michael Braungart, of the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The book puts forth a design framework based on three principles gleaned from nature in which design and science are fully integrated to eliminate wasteful practices and promote the safe use of materials, water, and energy.
Graham also worked with HO+K’s Science & Technology Group, where he shaped large-scale projects at high levels of environmental performance and design quality.
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When it came to renovating a 1980’s ranch house into his own home and the firm’s studio, “we didn’t have a target of net-zero,” he says. “We wanted to design a residence and studio that could reach beyond net-zero.” He chose the Passive House performance criteria as his guide. He also became a certified Passive House consultant.
“The principles of the PHIUS (Passive House Institute United States) provide numbers to hit and reasons why,” he explains. “Passive House establishes a solid baseline on which a project can be made energy positive.”
Graham’s team started with the basement, renovating it into a studio in 2013. They completed the entire home in 2017. Located on Foal Lane in Charlottesville, the Foal Home + Studio meets Passive House EnerPHit standards. In doing so, the buildings provide the Graham family and the members of his architecture firm, with light-filled and thermally comfortable structures in which to live, work, and play.
Phase One: Design Studio
Graham is also the founder of Liminal Architecture in Charlottesville. This smaller firm focuses on Passive House consulting services, which Graham provides to architects and architecture firms, general contractors and builders, and homeowners and business owners.
“The principles used to define Passive House Construction… make this form of architecture and engineering the most energy-efficient way to construct buildings in the world,” states the Liminal Architecture website. “Passive House is a performance standard for eco-friendly construction of homes and businesses.”
The Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) outlines the five principles of the methodology, which help architects and homeowners attain PHIUS’s rigorous levels of energy efficiency and a quantifiable comfort level.”
The principles include continuous insulation through the building’s entire envelope, an extremely airtight building envelope, high-performance windows, balanced heat- and moisture-recovery ventilation with minimal space conditioning, and solar gain for heating, minimized in the summer months.
The team began with the studio, located in the basement in a space that overlaps with the original garage. “We immediately wanted to dislodge the toxic garage from the house envelope, and decided the space was great for a studio or large home office,” he says.
The team moved walls and vertical access where appropriate and upgraded the structure and services for a future second-level floor addition. They installed rigid EPS insulation with vapor open tape and cellulose in the CMU walls. They put rigid EPS insulation beneath and above the new and existing slab. They also installed bamboo flooring, manifold plumbing, an UltimateAir RecoupAerator ERV, a Stiebl Eltron heat pump water heater, LED lighting, and a Lutron RadioRa dimming system.
Then came the rest of the house, “which was leaking and a dark energy hog” before the renovation began, Graham says.
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Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.
