Tiburon Bay House by Butler Armsden Architects

The Tiburon Bay House, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, was conceived as a contemporary, innovative approach to sustainable living and was designed by San Francisco-based studio Butler Armsden Architects.

The house is slated to be one of the first LEED-H Platinum certified custom homes in Northern California.

It is located on a previously developed site where the existing 1,500 square foot residence was deconstructed by hand and 95% was resused or recycled, including 10 tons of lumbers.

Tiburon Bay House by Butler Armsden Architects:

“In 2007 our client set out to build the highest performing LEED Platinum house possible and found the perfect site in the form of a dilapidated house on a sloped lot on the north side of the Tiburon peninsula.

The entire team was tasked with setting an example of just how far this energy saving architectural exercise could be pushed to set an example of great design and great performance at the same time. The floor plan of the house is centralized around a vertical stair to minimize circulation for people and utilities. The rooms are then allowed to spiral away from this core to take advantage of the views and the garden. An exterior bridge that serves as an outdoor living space also connects the garden to the house and solves the difficult problem of entering a house on a fairly steep uphill site.

All of the materials used in the project are recycled or sustainable and in some cases, like the retaining walls, were salvaged from the foundations of the original house. Electricity and hot water are solar powered, and there is even a complex water reclamation system that is technologically ahead of the local building codes.”