Architecture Must Adapt to a Changing World

we are building a house, a long-time dream, which has been culminating over the summer of 2023: the steeps.

it is a technical prototype which will demonstrate one solution to the top environmental problems of our region: carbon emissions + forest fires caused by logging, carbon emissions from construction, and carbon emissions from building operation.

Our project is at the foot of Mt Yuill on the north shore of Kootenay Lake. It makes the best of difficult conditions - the budget did not allow for flat land, but its rugged terrain makes the experience. The southern exposure roasts during a heat wave, but makes stepped gardening possible. The building’s form shelters it and surrounding gardens from the sun. The creek down the middle of the property limits the buildable area, but offers irrigation and hydro power. The project is our model for adventuresome and positive thinking about the challenges of our future.

The steeps has been the grounds for much of f2a’s research into regenerative design since work began there in 2018. competing for scarce lumber during the pandemic was costly, so we learned to mill our own and to cut timber frame joinery. Removing deadfall timber from the forest reduced fuel loads in close proximity to the house. The cost of insulation has climbed, so we designed a strawbale house. When we make our own way using materials at hand, we employ our friends, build community, reduce our carbon footprint, regenerate our land, and… build culture. But the project isn’t meant to be an argument for DIY all the way. We think that although it may take longer, it is critical that we prioritize more resourceful kinds of construction. To start, there is huge potential for other adventurers like us to follow this path to home ownership. But by adapting long-tested natural building techniques to current codes and our practice of modern architecture, we hope to show that natural building isn’t just for our radical friends in valley corners; this is the most luxurious way to build. 

As we realize the project, we are becoming deeply knowledgeable about each aspect, and we see that our techniques are viable. We want to build the next, lighter, and more inspiring strawbale modern! In spite of the smoke in the skies and the doom on the radio, we’re dreaming up a beautiful future. In the studio, we made a series of art works to express beauty we see in construction, and look to our next adventure in construction. The pieces were exhibited at gallery 444 in nelson bc from august 5 - september 10.

on September 9, we hosted a symposium on continuing the trajectory of our utopia towards true harmony with nature. We’re eager to build on this show with direction toward further works in the series, to wilder dreams.

detail

design is solution.

looking through the mind’s eye and thinking with the hands, we can imagine buildings. we slice through to generate plan drawings, window layouts, section views that stretch our knowledge of the space, materials, hanger bolts, columns, stairs… sometimes even going so far as to consider the hands that will lift ideas off the page. manual action translates architecture into construction.

assembly

materials come together in our recipe for environmentally-just house building. though the solution is not perfect, it is our first attempt and a starting point, self-funded, earnest and broadly applicable to future projects. this is a case-study, showing clients what is possible. the world, each of us, makes a choice towards or against harmony and at each stopping point there is a chance to improve.

construction is a process, sequence, series of layers that stack over time to create a melodious, cohesive, harmonious building engaging to the landscape, from the soil up to where roof beams interface with the sky.

site

this is a study of how to fit our all-natural, high-performance housing typology “modhouse” (modular, modifiable, modern, mode-shifting, modest) to the steep bc kootenay site. through light points of connection, architecture meets landscape. as construction costs go up, revival of exterior spaces and refined adaption of life to the surroundings will create value.

vision

construction processes are specific: hands assembling, a recipe for building, thermal assemblies, foundations which allow a house to sit on its site. 

we open the conversation further to wild landscapes and utopian vision. this panel is the first of what will become a series of studies on “waterfall cities”. based around epic natural features, we invite a gentle connection to landscape in our ideal future. historically, we were tethered to geo-features and climate zones where survival made sense. with greater freedom to inhabit remote parts of the world, our idea of architecture changes as it should.