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Context · Client · Design
The solitude and cool darkness of an ancient stand of red pines, strong and stoic timber, elegant purple-gray columns amongst a fragrant floor of copper needles.
An ethereal winter lake with a translucent ice floor to walk across. A white birch grove of crisp minim alist trunks peeling back to reveal a welcoming warmth.
“Wilderness is a spiritual necessity, a means of regaining serenity in our modern world.” Sigurd Olson
It inspires a childlike curiosity for exploration and a sense of being outside of time.
MH House is located in the dense urban fabric of downtown Duluth, Minnesota, USA but strives for a transform ative sense of place that weaves the client’s love for the beautiful North Shore landscape into a suite of compact, near-zero energy, modern glass pavilions.
MH House re-imagines a new, highly flexible, office and residential building type that em braces the mixed-use, urban location and anticipates the future needs of the client and the community. Each floor has a bathroom and kitchenette and can function as four individual studio apartments, as a single-family home with a separate office-apartment-guest suite, as an office on the ground floor and living above, and several other variations.
The simple architectural form and site placement is based on function, efficiency, views, and the sun. The new one-story and three-story buildings, arranged perpendicular and offset vertically, create an oasis of in-between courtyard spaces. This positioning allows every floor a generous lake view and the ideal exposure for passive heating. Continuous floor to ceiling glass captures the winter sun and fram es the expansive vistas of Lake Superior, the Duluth Harbor, and Old Downtown bridges and towers to the southeast- south-southwest. The only solid walls face north where there is no view or sun.
From the alley to the north one crosses a stone landscape wall and down a narrow lane through a dense grove of tam arack trees. Lake Superior com es into view from the paved stone plinth which appears to flow inside the buildings. Tall reedgrass provides a sense of enclosure around the courtyard where one can enjoy a quiet lunch, a sum m er office party, and visitors can park. A 250 cm horizontal and vertical grid establishes hum an-scale proportions and a com pact form , lends an order and rhythm to the design, and supports an extension of grating which blocks the sum m er sun.
MH House acts as a vessel to experience the outdoor world: the landscape, the cityscape, the weather, and the seasons.
The open exposure is balanced by strong tim ber beam s and a wood wardrobe wall which keeps one grounded and feeling warm and sheltered.
Passing through the wardrobe wall (like in the client’s favorite childhood book) one crosses with youthful exploration between the extroverted and sunlit live-work world on one side and the introverted and cool refuge of the stairway-lounge-library on the other side.
Environment
MH House is an innovative, yet straightforward, concept for near-zero energy building in a very cold clim ate. It is a response to:
“How much does your building weigh?” in energy, resources, cost, flexibility, and aesthetics.
MH House is designed for Passive House Certification through the Passive House Institute (PHI) and LEED Platinum Certification. The project dem onstrates that transparency and lightness can be part of the design vocabulary that m eets these rigorous standards.
The design achieves a 90% reduction in prim ary energy dem and using passive and low- tech solutions: extrem ely com pact exterior form , passive solar heating, sum m er shading, super-insulation, air tight and therm al bridge-free construction, and energy efficient heat recovery ventilation. These m ethods result in a 98% reduction in heating load. In an extrem ely cold clim ate where January low tem peratures are often –35˚C, the peak heating load for the entire project is only 2000 watts (one hair dryer). As a result, there is no need for a traditional space heating system m aking it easier to achieve thin floor lines and a pure exposed system s aesthetic. There is also no need for an active cooling system as the geotherm al heat exchanger at the ERV will cool and dehum idify the incom ing fresh air in the summer.
Specific Space Heat Demand: 2.3 kWh/m 2 a Specific Prim ary Energy Dem and: 80 kWh/m2 a Peak Heating Load: 2,000 watts.
Construction
The construction approach is a pre-fabricated kit of parts, planned on a rigorous grid, where the exposed construction is a central part of the aesthetic.
• Insulation “raft” surrounding a concrete slab-on-grade.
• Exposed steel colum ns + tim ber prim ary beam s + steel secondary beam s.
• VIP (vacuum insulated panel) core with plywood cover roof deck panels + vapor-open weather resistant m em brane + ventilated cavity + plywood roof deck + epdm m em branes + pre-vegetated m odular trays
• Triple-pane, tubular skylights in integral xps insulation curb.
• Triple-pane structural glazing factory-adhered to fiberglass com posite fram es.
• VIP wall panels + alum inum cover. Upper VIP panels rem oved in the sum m er to allow natural ventilation of the stairway and/or entire building utilizing copper screen wall.
• 84% efficient, passive house certified, heat and m oisture recovery ventilation (ERV) including pre-heating/ pre-cooling of outside air with integrated geotherm al heat exchanger connected to 4 helical vertical ground loops 5 m eters deep.
• 99% efficient tankless, electric hot water heater placed on each level.
• 800 watt wall-m ounted electric radiator panel with m irror finish in each bathroom , the only active space heating system.
• Local lim estone pavers, floor tile, and stair treads.
• Recycled porcelain aggregate.
• Recycled industrial copper screen panels with factory-applied patina.
• Local Lake Superior bluestone used at sliding-pivoting interior wall and door panels.
• Local and recycled white terrazzo at bathroom floors, walls, and ceilings.
• Reclaim ed doug fir tim ber beam s and storage wall cabinetry.
• Lacquered black glass countertop and cabinet fronts at kitchenette credenza.
• Etched glass block floor/ceiling set in clear anodized alum inum fram e.
• Alum inum sunshade structure and roofing com ponents with iron metallic finish.
Carly Coulson, AIA, LEED AP
Architect Carly Coulson integrates the diverse disciplines that combine to make contemporary building into beautiful, humane, and sustainable environments.
Ms. Coulson is the Principal and Owner of the architecture firm COULSON. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree and is a Crown Scholar from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She has worked on highly-innovative, sustainable solutions since she first started practicing as a designer at Foster & Partners. She has received numerous awards for design excellence including national and regional AIA Honor Awards, Architectural Record Good Design is Good.
Business Award, Architect Home of Year Award, Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, and Residential Architect Design Awards while designing projects at Salmela Architect. Carly was recognized with a COTE Top Ten Award and Architect Annual Design Review Award for the Bagley Classroom, the first LEED Platinum and passive house building at the University of Minnesota.
