The TreeHaus is a site driven, highly responsive design + build project. Reacting to the steeply wooded site, the house is arranged in a series of cubic geometries that imbed themselves into the thermal comfort of the hillside, coupling the stepped retaining walls as external boundaries. Environmentally speaking, the home, sited at 7,000 ft in the extreme snowy microclimate of Summit Park near Park City, is designed to Passiv Haus standards with a highly efficient thermal envelope and energy systems. Socially, the spaces are arranged so that the primary public living areas are vertically sandwiched between to levels of private spaces, utilizing the stepped rhythm of the form as deck and patio space to create an open indoor outdoor experience. This house is a tribute to our rational to approach design + building in a more deliberate, modern form.
What was the brief?
To design / build / efficiently execute a new home on a very steep and challenging lot in the mountains near park city.
What are the sustainability features?
Our design is based loosely off the Passiv Haus methodology, employing super insulated 12" walls, triple pane windows to help mitigate the cold winters that dominate the climate.
What were the key challenges?
We needed to find a way to efficiently and economically build into the +/- 60% slope. We did this by keeping the footprint to a minimum and stacking the program into 4 stories. Each level we rotated the 'cube' to create decks, enhance views, and to delineate each level. Kinda like a rubix-cube!
