Greenleaf House
This is a new single family home and studio for a family of three and their pets. The family consists of a working artist, a pilates instructor, and a son in junior high, and their pets. The site is on a never built-upon lot in southern Evanston, Illinois. The home incorporates a working art studio for sculpture, painting, and video work as well as a pilates studio. The exterior of the home is partially sided in shou sugi ban that was salvaged and incorporated from the artist’s previous installation in Saint Louis. The remainder of the exterior is galvanized and painted steel siding. The structure is SIPS panels with trussed floor construction. The SIPS was chosen for energy efficiency as well as speed of construction. The house is a ground concrete slab-on-grade with radiant heating over R-40 rigid insulation. The planning of the house was intended to emphasize direct relationships between cooking, eating, and living to lower the building area. The connecting areas such as the stair, catwalk, entry, and decks are then emphasized with their own volumes and special materials such as wood and industrial metal grating. The exterior cladding is a straightforward expression of honest materials with a minimal of field finishing.