Located on a wooded lot directly across from a land & water conservation project funded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department & the US Department of Interior, the challenge outlined by the client was to have a sustainable home where the design both yields to and amplifies the landscape.

Many highly efficient homes use insulated walls with limited openings to save on energy while using traditional building systems; this approach, however, sacrifices the benefits daylight and relies on artificial lighting. The team approached the task of balancing design and sustainability by understanding how each designers' decisions could affect and improve the owner's environment. 

For example, white plaster walls and soft-toned flooring keep spaces bright, allowing the home to operate during the day without artificial lighting. This approach also reduces the energy load, and thus reduces the size of the rooftop solar array. Additionally, although one-third of the exterior facade is glass, the orientation of the house, windows, and rooms provide for north oriented bedrooms. Diffuse, shadowless light filters in where landscapes smear across white reflective plaster planes, amplifying the monochromatic interior pallet and allowing the colors of time and season to affect space. For the resident, this interdependence between the atmosphere and finishes create an ever-changing interior landscape; each space is intended to feel unique while deeply dependent on nature.

Another obstacle of sustainable design is size. In the Winnwood Residence, each room is individually insulated and controlled to take advantage of the geothermal HVAC system, effectively creating an independent building envelope and system for each room. Depending on the day and number of occupants, the 4,600 s.f. home can be reduced to an operational area of 900 s.f. by only heating or cooling a single room.

The geothermal heat pump system combined with a 10kW photovoltaic system, harvesting 86% of rooftop rainwater, and a landscape which allows for 93% of storm water site infiltration, the Winnwood Residence is a net positive energy home certified LEED Platinum.