Booth Hansen’s award-winning Solar House
By Andersen Windows & Doors
When an empty-nester couple decided to build a new home, they had a few ideas in mind. One, they wanted to remain in their current neighborhood. Two, they wanted more natural light and outdoor connections. And three, they wanted an all-electric home.
Here’s how Booth Hansen designed a Chicago modern home that delivers on all three wishes — aka, the Solar House.
H2: Creative reuse helps overcome zoning restrictions
The homeowners purchased an existing house on a triangular corner lot in their desired neighborhood. The home, however, didn’t quite suit their needs. To complicate the matter, setbacks would have allowed for almost no buildable space. Luckily, Booth Hansen had an innovative solution:. By creating a design that reused the existing foundation, along with the northern and western walls, they were able to overcome the zoning restrictions while also aligning with the client’s sustainable ethos. “We didn’t want to have to tear everything up, pour a new foundation, and put up new CMU walls,” said Kelly Tang, AIA, associate architect. “A good wall is a good wall — let's save it.”
By reusing what was salvageable from the old home, they were also able to maximize the lot’s 100-foot-wide by 100-foot-long dimensions.
The new home salvages the foundation and two walls from the original, which means it’s oriented away from neighboring homes and toward the unobstructed light coming from the south and east.
H2: A daylighting scheme that doesn’t sacrifice privacy
As long-time Chicagoans, the homeowners had experienced the dark interiors that often characterize their city’s homes. That’s why it was important to them that their new home really let in the light and connect with the outdoors.
To make this happen while working within the existing constraints, the house is divided into three staggered triangular volumes to maximize eastern and southern light and create pockets of outdoor space. Public rooms are concentrated in the center volume where 5-foot-wide-by-10-foot-tall, floor-to-ceiling Andersen E-Series windows dominate the double-height living room. The two flanking volumes continue the theme with floor-to-ceiling glass in the same proportions.
Upstairs, the windows begin farther from the floor and are 2 feet shorter to provide privacy in the bedrooms. Although the home is oriented toward the street, a 6-foot fence running along the front of the property also helps to preserve privacy.
The height of the windows is a key detail since it brings in natural light and views, while also helping to maximize solar heat gain. Copyright: © Steve Hall Architect: Booth Hansen
The Solar House is divided into three volumes, with public spaces concentrated in the center and private spaces in each of the flanking volumes, including his and hers studies and outdoor spaces. Copyright: © Steve Hall Architect: Booth Hansen
H2: Combining windows, passive strategies, and HVAC to get to all-electric
The height of the windows helps maximize the passive solar heat gained during the winter. And although the interior is truly flooded with natural light, there’s actually a 25%-window-to-wall ratio because of the largely windowless walls that were reused on the northern and western sides. The home has 1.5 inches of continuous insulation and spray-foam in the cavity, helping the walls reach an R-Value of 34 — well beyond the R-Value of 24 required by code at the time of build. These high-performing walls help increase the efficiency of the HVAC systems, which include an air source heat pump, a heat pump water heater, and an energy recovery ventilator.
Over 80% of its power is generated by the south-oriented solar array hidden on the roof.
The result of all these efforts is that the home not only exceeds local code but has an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 3 — bringing it to nearly net- zero and much lower than the typical Chicago home, which might have an EUI of 49 if it meets baseline energy code.
“We were extremely energy efficient, but we had to strike a balance between what would be comfortable for them and what would make the house beautiful,” said Tang.
In a home so carefully designed and skillfully executed, perhaps one of the greatest surprises is just how well it fits into the fabric of the neighborhood. Featuring the brick that’s so characteristic of the city and a bit of modern flair, it’s no wonder this home won the 2023 Lerch Bates People’s Choice Award for Single-Family Residential from AIA Chicago.
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