A home for his family - and a family's moment of trust – can we live in HIS idea of home? Our home is located in Takoma Park, MD and is open for tours. Come see straw bale, living roofs, solar pv, corn stove, biodiesel-fueled hot water (and our cars!), creatively building with salvaged materials and local woods, and a storm-water management plan, including a pond, bog and rain garden - all which wouldn't mean anything if our home weren't soulful and alive. Here is a more detailed description.

Home forms an oasis from harsh Mexican sun and street-life. House and gardens swirl with ocean currents; built with local traditions.

Rhapsody in Jazz – new work pumps life into house with play of light and colors and woods and metals.
Poetic Narrative

House rises with heaving mountain ridge, settling into layers of habitation.
Poetic Narrative

Straw bale and timber frame home, built by the owner who is a timber framer. Situated on a south-facing bluff, nestled against protective trees on the north side - the centering Great Room is scaled to the expansive views in 180 degrees. The home is also stretched along the south-facing orientation, for passive solar design considerations and daylighting throughout the day.

Clients wanted a very green home that looked like a traditional cottage. Centered by a light and life-giving cupola, the interior flows easily, providing a peaceful, nurturing home for the couple--with a full array of Green Features.

Crack open the existing house, which was unresponsive to land, sun, and breeze, so it can help bring the family into relationship with their surroundings. New sunspace both works to passively heat the home in the winter (coupled with a masonry stove) and to provide a nurturing center for the family.

The narrative creates an ancestry - the home's exterior begins with "G6," the Grandparents who built the original part of the home. All subsequent Gs added their generation to the unfolding of the home, but the interior is a surprise - it's 2008!

Second story addition on a Cape Cod home, and fully renovating the entire home, implementing green features in every way. You can follow this link to a photo gallery/illustration by the client of the process and making of their home: . Here's a summary of the 2007 solar home tour.

The studio, for a plein air landscape artist,serves as a vessel for her to be more intimately connected to the world she's interpreting with her art.

Wood filigree house, at once a tree-house and a burrow, from four recycled barns.

New work unfolds from mid-evil/modern portal addition, Chuck vigorously connecting the house to the land.

Little-big house (1200 sq.ft.), quirky and centered.

Strawbale and cob, funky and earthen; asking questions.

The sanctuary rises up with the parched sward of the land, giving refuge with its deep vaulted sky. Thompson-Naylor Architects are the architects of record.

The new work moves out to welcome its urban street front and expand into its woods-filled back yard.