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Three Little Houses
South Dartmouth
Designed by DSK Architects:
Mark Schmid, Tim Hess, Marshall McClean.
Builder: The Howland Company
Green Building Consultant: Marc Rosenberg
HVAC Consultants: Allied Engineering
photographs: Peter Vanderwarker
United by a common wildflower meadow and designed to entice distant family members into holiday and vacation time together, each of these little buildings serves an autonomous function in place of the very big house they might together have become. A two-bedroom studio and a four-bedroom cottage embrace the central meadow. Facing South over the meadow, a deep covered porch shields the central great room from summer sun. A three-car garage shapes the entry court and hosts a large solar array.
Extremely tight and well-insulated thermal envelopes ("You could heat this place with a match").Fit-to-party flexibility.
High-efficiency electric heat pumps.
The project has been awarded a LEED Silver certification under the US Green Building Council's LEED for Homes Program, was featured as the case-study house in a 2010 article in the Green Living section of New England Home magazine, and was named a Merit Award Winner in Builder Magazine's Builder's Choice program in 2012.
