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High Performance Residential and Timber Frame Home Design
September 24-28, 2008

In order to best convey the purpose of this workshop, one must understand how NOT to design a home. The workshop instructors believe that most homeowners who design their own residence using de facto methods do not produce a quality plan. Similarly design professionals who use architectural graphic standards as "cookie cut" solutions create mediocre results. These ideas are perpetuated by home design marketing companies suggesting that high quality results can be realized using self-help design techniques with little or no investment. These promises range from using web-based computer aided design (CAD) software tools which allow you to envision your dream house in 3-D, to supermarket house plans books practically given away in order to sell the substandard plans contained within the covers. Whether the basic design is taken from an existing timber frame or conventional stick frame plan, or graphics standards, most future homeowner-designers start with a plan that someone else created. An underlying assumption is that the original "professional" design has merit, and modifying this plan to meet personal needs will create a high quality home at a low design cost. This is simply untrue. To be completely honest, the vast majority of timber frame homes are timber frames surrounded by a shell and called a house. These approaches do not produce high performance elegant spaces which meet the intimate needs of the homeowner.

A high performance home design evolves within a framework adopted by professionals to create a personalized design which is the realization of the future homeowner’s dream house. This workshop is taught by professionals who have collectively spent decades on sound design of structures and systems. They firmly believe that the techniques for good design and implementation can be taught in this venue. While CAD tools may assist in visualizing the design, or creating construction documents, good design usually starts on sketch paper – not a computer screen. The home is integrated with the site, is environmentally sound and energy efficient, balances inside and outside spaces, incorporates features which are considered best-practices, and most importantly, meets the needs of each homeowner.

This workshop will use a real-life example of a hybrid timber frame home which meets these criteria. The process to develop a set of building plans, beginning with a program and conceptual plan, and leading to construction drawings will be discussed in detail. Apart from drawing building layouts in Plan View, a licensed architect will elaborate on drawing techniques which serve to illustrate and communicate the design in plan, section, elevation, and perspective drawings. CAD examples of the design iterations will supplant the core requirements leading to the final design. Following these lectures and discussions, students will be challenged to implement this design process to create their own program and conceptual design. Each student will discuss their designs with the class and receive group and personal feedback from the instructors.

Optional Evening Sessions will describe the LEED-H program requirements and benefits in detail. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. More information can be found at http://www.usgbc.org.

An optional tour of the home, which served as the real-life example in class, is offered to participants on the Sunday following the workshop. The tour will include discussions of the design concepts, as well as extensive details on the systems which create a high performance home with low environmental impact.

Tentative Daily Outline

  • September 24 (Wednesday)
    :: Optional: High Performance Residential Design
    :: Optional: Best Practices for Sustainable Design & Building Tectonics
    :: Integrated Site Design: Earth and Sun
    :: Integrated Site Design: Wind and Water
    :: Get Acquainted Social (optional evening program)
  • September 25 (Thursday)
    :: Programming and Conceptual Design
    :: Inside/Outside Space Allocation TF Design Constraints
    :: TF Techniques and Terminology
    :: Developed Drawings Plan, Section, Elevation
    :: Slide Show of LEEDS-H CASE STUDY (optional evening program)
  • September 26 (Friday)
    :: Not-So-Big House Design Concepts
    :: STUDENT WORKSHOP: Create Conceptual Design Drawings
    :: Systems Planning and Built-in Detail
    :: STUDENT WORKSHOP continued
    :: LEEDS-H Design Requirements (optional evening program)
  • September 27 (Saturday)
    :: Construction Phasing/Mgmnt
    :: Cost Analysis, Budgeting and Scheduling
    :: Design Reviews and Feedback I
    :: Design Reviews and Feedback II
    :: Design Reviews and Feedback III (optional evening program)
  • September 28 (Saturday)
    :: Noon to 4PM OPTIONAL TOUR of Denver Metro Area High Performance Hybrid TF Homes with Alternative HVAC Systems

Download the complete schedule in Excel format.


Taught by Al Wallace and Ted Schultz