Net Zero Hingham House is on the market

Our Net Zero Hingham House is on the market — Take a look at the feature in Boston Magazine for more information!

Photography by: Kerry Riordan of Blu Lemonade

More about the Hingham Net Zero House:

The existing site consists of an existing stone house with detached garage in Hingham. The garden and grounds are wooded and removed from the street. The existing stone house is nearly uninsulated. The owners purchased this lot and wanted to build a new small superinsulated house on the site, adjacent to the existing house. The new modern farmhouse is quite small, just over 2000 SF for a family of 5. It's sited in the existing garden surrounded by mature fruit trees and almost not visible from the street. The house is elongated along the east-west axis to maximize the solar exposure to the south. The main rooms are all located along the south facade where they'll receive maximum passive solar gain. The south roof provided is for PV and solar thermal panels.

energy:  MA New Homes with Energy Star Tier 3 - Solar panels on south roof by E2Solar, Dennis MA

Net Zero West Dennis House featured in Cape Cod Home

Thank you so much to Cape Cod Home for publishing our Net Zero West Dennis House!

We loved working with this young family on their new West Dennis beach house. The house is designed to be net energy zero and to take advantage of some amazing views of Nantucket Sound and a pond to the back.

The project has some tight restrictions including zoning lot coverage, FEMA flood regulations and conservation restrictions.   The 3400 SF design spreads the program vertically over 2 and ½ stories to take advantage of the views, that get dramatically better as you go up.

Builder:  McPhee Associates of Cape Cod

Interior design: Color Theory Boston

Solar Panels: E2 Solar

Landscape: Phil Cheney

For more photos: Net Zero West Dennis House

Best of Boston 2021 - Sustainable Architect

A3 Architects was honored to be named Best of Boston Sustainable Architect for 2021!   We continue to be passionate about our commitment to net-zero design- creating buildings that create as much energy as they use.  We have some exciting net zero and passive house projects in the design phase and look forward to beginning construction in the upcoming year. We are so thankful to have many clients who share this commitment and happily share their energy bills with us!  We appreciate the recognition as we continue to pursue energy efficient projects across the Cape and Islands, and beyond.  Congratulation to all the winners! 

Fine Homebuilding - Net Zero Scituate

A3 was excited when Fine Homebuilding reached out to discuss our Scituate Net Zero project. Check out the article in the December/January Issue and see below for a little more information on the project!

The site is an existing 5000 SF lot in a dense waterfront neighborhood of Scituate overlooking Third Cliff. The house is a year round home for a young family of four. Energy modeling was used extensively to design the house to be a cost effective approach to near net energy zero. The solar panels on the roof will provide +/- 70% of the heating, cooling and electrical load. The design reflects the traditional shingle style in the neighborhood and orients all living areas East, toward the Atlantic.  The new structure is a simple 3 story home that maximizes views to the East while maintaining a small yard to the rear. The front porch communicates with village streetscape, and the dramatic third floor deck commands a sweeping 180 degree view of the ocean. The kitchen-dining-living area on the first floor is a simple and relatively small open plan with a cozy den off the entry. Three bedrooms are located on the second level, again with views of the ocean. The 3rd floor contains an office and playroom with sloping ceilings that create an airy space with dramatic views.

energy:  HERs index: 62 --- MA New Homes with Energy Star: Tier 3. Solar on south roof by E2 Solar

builder:  Ronan Residential, Scituate MA

solar: E2 Solar

photography: Dan Cutrona

Cape Cod Home's Annual Guide and interview with Alison Alessi

What a great resource — Check out Cape Cod Home’s Annual Design Guide 2020! (Also take a peak at A3’s Alison Alessi interview on Inviting Interiors.)

Historic Harwich Cape published in Cape Cod Home

Thank you so much to Cape Cod Home for publishing our historic renovation in Harwichport!

Homeowner’s Steve and Peggy from Dallas Texas asked us to help them create a real family gathering space in their historic Harwichport home. The home, which has been in Steve’s family for over 100 years, consists of an historic half-Cape (the antique), a dated 50s kitchen connector and a 1980s addition (the annex).   Steve grew up coming to Harwichport in the summer and wanted to provide that for the next generation.

We decided to leave the antique and the annex largely intact and worked on connecting them better with a more modern gathering space that could accommodate their extended family.

The modern addition acts as connector – from old to new, inside to out and front to back.  It consists of a large kitchen, dining and living areas.  Since the existing rooms are all small and have low ceilings, we thought the new modern rooms should be expansive and have some height to them. The spaces are all open to one another, but the living room ceiling is vaulted to follow the gabled roof line.

From the exterior the new addition gabled entry signals a more modern approach in the back.  It pulls visitors to the new entry into the new living room.  The new simple bluestone patio in the back is a private oasis for summer parties.

The Clients hope to spend more time in Harwichport moving forward!

To check out the article: https://capecodlife.com/harwich-port-cottage/

Net Zero Lexington House published in GB&D

Thank you so much to Green Building & Design Magazine for publishing our Net Zero Lexington House!

The house is designed with superinsulation strategies including a double wall and roof insulation values. This superinsulation, and near airtight envelope with ventilation, reduces the heating and cooling load so that the entire house is heated and cooled with several mini split heat pumps.  Everything in the house is electric, by design to match the electric production of the photovoltaic panels on the garage roof facing south. Over the course of the year, the solar panels provide enough energy for the entire home!

To check out the article: https://gbdmagazine.com/2019/lexington-net-zero/

To learn more about the project: Net Zero Lexington House

Spotlight: Brewster Flats House

Expats Stu and Nancy had spent the last 10 or so living in Asia, and despite raising their family on the west coast, when it came time to put down permanent roots, the answer was Brewster.  Nancy’s father had built a small cottage on the top of a small hill on their lot that afforded peeks of the Bay from the front of the house.  We decided to save the existing foundation,  and rebuild up from there to create a larger and brighter family home that still fits in the streetscape of the existing seaside neighborhood along the Bay.

In addition to gathering art from all over far East, the homeowners saved many items from the existing cottage including the brick flooring from the old sunroom to use in the new mudroom. These touches help to remember the old but the new is decidedly more modern. With high ceiling and large double hung windows, the new living room is bright and airy.  The new kitchen facing south has a dramatic vaulted ceiling and more windows overlooking the leafy backyard.

The large open floor living, dining and kitchen have natural light all day, with a small cozy study located off of the dining area.  This office serves are workspace as well as gallery.  The master bedroom is located to the east with a spa-like master bathroom.  The functional mudroom entry connects living areas to garage with functional pantry and laundry areas. The 2nd floor contains 2 additional bedroom and connected bathrooms with high cathedral ceilings.

Project Details:

• Location: Brewster, Massachusetts

• House Type: Single Family Residence

• Construction type: New Construction w/ salvaged brick fireplace and foundation

• Extg House sqft (demolished): 1680 sqft

• Renovated House w/ new addition sqft: 2770 sqft

Builder: TA LaBarge

Photographer:  Dan Cutrona

For more images: Brewster Flats House

Brewster Flats house Construction slideshow

Spotlight: Historic Harwichport Cape

Homeowner’s Steve and Peggy from Dallas Texas asked us to help them create a real family gathering space in their historic Harwichport home. The home, which has been in Steve’s family for over 100 years, consists of an historic half-Cape (the antique), a dated 50s kitchen connector and a 1980s addition (the annex).   Steve grew up coming to Harwichport in the summer and wanted to provide that for the next generation.

We decided to leave the antique and the annex largely intact and worked on connecting them better with a more modern gathering space that could accommodate their extended family.

The modern addition acts as connector – from old to new, inside to out and front to back.  It consists of a large kitchen, dining and living areas.  Since the existing rooms are all small and have low ceilings, we thought the new modern rooms should be expansive and have some height to them. The spaces are all open to one another, but the living room ceiling is vaulted to follow the gabled roof line.

From the exterior the new addition gabled entry signals a more modern approach in the back.  It pulls visitors to the new entry into the new living room.  The new simple bluestone patio in the back is a private oasis for summer parties.

The Clients hope to spend more time in Harwichport moving forward!  

Project Details:

• Location: Harwichport, Massachusetts

• House Type: Single Family Residence

• Construction type: Renovation & Addition

• Extg House square footage: 2407 sqft

• Renovated House w/ new addition sqft: 2844 sqft

Builder: George Davis Builders

Photographer:  Dan Cutrona

Kitchen before renovation/addition

Kitchen after renovation/addition

Game room/Dining room before renovation

Game room/Dining room after renovation

Living room renovation before

Living room renovation after

Backyard before demo and addition

Backyard after demo and addition

Historic Harwichport Cape Construction slideshow

Spotlight: Net Zero Lexington House

These clients in Lexington MA came to us with an idea of creating a new net-energy zero home for their family of five.  The husband is self-employed and wanted a large office that could accommodate clients.  The wife makes jewelry and wanted a place to be able to work on her craft. The three kids are in high school and college (when they aren’t travelling the world!) but this new home was to be their family’s hub and home base.

We worked on an existing site with a rundown 1950s ranch that was removed.   We sited the new house, connector and garage to maximize passive and active solar.  The garage is located closer to the busy street while the house overlooks the gorgeous backyard oasis with lots of glass overlooking the owners own landscape design.

The house is designed with superinsulation strategies including a double wall and roof insulation values. This superinsulation, and near airtight envelope with ventilation, reduces the heating and cooling load so that the entire house is heated and cooled with several mini split heat pumps.  Everything in the house is electric, by design to match the electric production of the photovoltaic panels on the garage roof facing south. Over the course of the year, the solar panels provide enough energy for the entire home!

The interiors of the home are modern and open.  The IKEA kitchen opens to a dining area and open vaulted living room with balcony above. There’s a quieter study/bedroom to the east, and several bedrooms on the second floor.

Project Details:

• Location: Lexington, Massachusetts

• House Type: Single Family Residence

• Conditioned Area: 4212 sqft

• Conditioned Volume: 52458 cubic ft

• HERS Index:  42 (calculated w/o renewable, w/ renewable net zero ready)

• ACH:  0.72 Air Changes per Hours

Mechanicals:

• Heating/Cooling: Wall Mounted MSHP

• Ventilation System: ERV

• Appliances:  All Electric

• Water:  Heat Pump Hot Water Heater

• Lighting:  Energy Efficient LED Lights through Mass Save Program

Insulation:

• Ceiling:                        R:  60

• Exposed Floor:            R:  40

• Above Grade Walls:  R:  40

• Foundations Walls:     R: 19

• Slab:                            R: 20

Construction Details:

• Wall Type:  Double Wall Construction

• Windows:  Triple Glazed Intus Windows

• U Value:  0.088

• SHGC:  0.494

• House Wrap:  Solitex Mento 1000 (air tight, vapor permeable)

• Air Barrier:  Intello Plus

Builder: AEDI Construction

HERS Rater:  Home Energy Raters LLC

Photographer:  Kyle Caldwell

Net Zero Lexington Construction Slideshow

Seven Sustainable Design Firms That Will Help You Go Green

Big thanks to Boston Home Magazine for including A3 Architects on their list of 7 sustainable design firms! Check out the write up on Boston Home Magazine.

Cape Cod Home - Chatham Stage Harbor House

Thank you so much to Cape Cod Home for featuring our Chatham Stage Harbor House  in their Spring 2018 issue.  It was a wonderful project to work on with great clients in a beautiful location!

In 2014 we started working with a fabulous client on their new family’s home in downtown Chatham. They bought a small cottage on a charming street right off of Main Street but knew they needed a larger home with a second story to accommodate their family, and extended family. The lot was small, but lovely with old trees and views to stage harbor. We collaborated with the owner’s daughter, an architect in New York city to create a multi-generational home that accommodates their 90 father on a first floor bedroom as well as college kids and extended family.  The main living space is an open living, dining and kitchen with a pantry tucked off it. There’s a screened porch beyond that offers indoor /outdoor living in the summer months.  We tried to use as many windows as possible to keep the space bright and airy. While the street façade has windows, we kept it a little more solid for privacy but the back is a wall of windows overlooking a bluestone patio. Thanks to Cape Cod Magazine for the feature and Dan Cutrona Photography for the amazing shots.  Toby the wheaton terrier stole the show as usual!

Full Article in Cape Cod Home:  Back to the Family

Builder:  Ta LaBarge

Framer:  Matt Andersen - Andersen Framing

Structural Engineer:  Mark McKenzie

Site Engineer:  Clark Engineering

Kitchen & Baths:  Classic Kitchen & Interiors

Windows:  Marvin Integrity - Marvin Design Gallery

Photographer:  Dan Cutrona

Writer:  Haley Cote

Cape Cod Home

Thank you to Cape Cod Home magazine for featuring our interview in the “next wave” feature of their Annual Guide. While it can be hard to self-reflect we are proud of the work we’ve done and feel so fortunate that we get to collaborate with some many great clients, engineers, builders and local vendors.  Cape Cod is a great place to work and we again are so lucky we have designed in many amazing locations and with a wide variety of styles.

 Check out the article here 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from everyone at A3!!

Best of Boston Home - Boston design center

A3 Architects was excited to attend the Best of Boston Home event Thursday evening at the Boston Design Center in the Seaport District.  We were honored to be named Best of Boston Home 2018 Sustainable Architect and it was wonderful to celebrate with other building and design professionals in such an awesome space. 

The Design center is a revamped historic warehouse built in 1918 – at the interior they have left the structure completely exposed – it was exciting to see the old mushroom cap columns next to the exposed ductwork. 

Thanks to Boston Home for hosting such a wonderful evening and congrats to all the winners!

Best of Boston Home 2018 - Sustainable Architect

A3 Architects was honored to be named Best of Boston Home 2018 for 'sustainable architect' in November.  We continue to be passionate about our commitment to net-zero design- creating buildings that create as much energy as they use.  We are so thankful to have many clients who share this commitment and happily share their energy bills with us!  We appreciate the recognition as we continue to pursue energy efficient projects across the Cape and Islands, and beyond.  

Congratulation to all the winners!  We look forward to celebrating at the Design Center in Boston in December. 

A3 wins 1 Bedroom and 3 Bedroom Category in CCYP Housing Competition

A3 Architects was honored to be awarded first place in both the 1 bedroom and 3 bedroom categories of the Cape Cod Young Professionals design competition for affordable housing on Cape Cod.  We look forward to working with the CCYP to further develop these schemes into permit sets and have them constructed in the future.

The designs are all quite traditional and compact, again to address affordability. We are committed to low energy use homes, so all three were designed to be net-zero possible with the addition of photovoltaic panels.  While affordable housing is an issue on the Cape so are energy prices.  Fixing energy costs goes a long way towards addressing affordability.

Cape Cod Times Article on CCYP Housing Competition

Behind the scenes of the Stage Harbor photoshoot

It’s so fun and rewarding to revisit projects after they’ve been lived in for a few months. We love to get final pictures for our portfolio, website and possible publication.  It is an exhausting day but well worth the effort.  In this post we share some behind the scenes action working with our favorite photographer Dan Cutrona. He’s so easy to work with and is a wizard with light. We are excited to see his final shots!

This house was easy to photograph in that the first floor is a series of open spaces – kitchen, dining, living rooms and screened porch.  We always try to get a series of exterior shots and in this case waited until the ‘magic hour’ to shoot outside. But the sun sets so quickly we only got about 4 shots in before losing the light. 

Southern New England Home

Check out the latest issue of Southern New England Home to see the feature on our Net Zero Quivet Neck House. 

The Quivet Neck project was developed on an existing site is an undisturbed 8 acre parcel in rural East Dennis with abundant wildlife, rolling stone walls and wetlands. The project will minimally disturb less than 1/4 acre on the site and faces the northwest for distant views of Cape Cod Bay. The proposed design is in keeping with the charming historic neighborhood of East Dennis. The shingled style with three gables on each side will provide a dramatic interior roofline for the main living areas located on the second floor, under the roof. All the rooms are oriented towards the exterior living spaces and the distant water views beyond. The house will be super insulated and produce nearly as much energy as it uses.

energy:  MA New Homes with Energy Star, Tier 3.  Solar panels on south roof by E2Solar, Dennis MA

builder:  Brian W Shanahan CO, Barnstable MA

photography by Dan Cutrona

magazine:  Southern New England Home

article by:  Kiley Jacques

blog:  Aerial Video of Net Zero Quivet Neck House

A3 Architects named finalist in Cape Cod Young Professional’s affordable housing competition

We were thrilled that the local non-profit Cape Cod Young Professionals announced a design competition for affordable housing on Cape Cod this summer.  Affordable housing continues to be a major issue for all who live on the Cape.  We have had the privilege of working with the Community Development Partnership to develop 12 units of affordable housing for Harwich several years ago, but we were excited to focus on the issue again for the competition.  We submitted 3 designs – a 500 SF affordable unit, an 1100 SF 2-bedroom unit and a 1600 SF 3 bedroom unit which were all named finalists. 

The designs are all quite traditional and compact, again to address affordability. We are committed to low energy use homes, so all three were designed to be net-zero possible with the addition of photovoltaic panels.  While affordable housing is an issue on the Cape so are energy prices.  Fixing energy costs goes a long way towards addressing affordability.

See all the finalists:

 http://www.capecodyoungprofessionals.org/ccyp-housing-design-contest/view-contest-finalists

The finalists will be displayed at the CCYP’s annual back to business bash in Hyannis this evening.  We are so excited to develop these schematics and hope it helps move the conversation forward on the need for affordable housing on Cape Cod.

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