Californication House

This residence, home to Hertz and his family, was designed in two phases. The first phase featured two separate volumes connected by a bridge. Some years later the adjacent lot became available. It is now a compound made up of four discrete two-story buildings linked by three enclosed bridges that all face onto the courtyard, in a style one might call Balinese Modern. His solution was to make the house the greenest house of its size he’d ever seen. Hertz used this house as a case study for green building techniques. An array of 20 solar collector panels on the roof help generate about 70 percent of the home’s electricity needs, and other sections of the roof are given over to flat-plate collectors that provide hot water to the water heater, which then sends it into a radiant heating system in the concrete floors, pool and hot tub. The materials used were chosen carefully to support environmental sustainability and the design intent. Recycled and FSC certified sustainable woods such as Ipe, Mahogany, and Fir, are used throughout the house. And much of the concrete is Syndecrete®, which contains about 41 percent recycled content and is twice as light, with twice the compressive strength, of normal concrete. The material acts inside the house as a kind of “solar sink” for passive solar energy transfer, storing up the sun’s warmth during the day, and thus keeping it from overheating the interior, and then slowly releasing that heat during the night. Syndecrete® flooring was chosen for several reasons; it eliminates mold and dust caused by carpet, requires less maintenance, and is more environmentally sensitive than carpet, wood, or other floor finishes. In order to maintain excellent indoor air quality, the architect used zero VOC paint, and eliminated a forced air system and carpeted floors, progenitors of mold and dust. This building is a successful study in architecture that is both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally responsible and was rewarded the Sustainable Living Award by the Eco Home network.