Luxury Real Estate is back and this month we present you the Hover House 3, by Glen Irani Architects. The home is their third attempt at a natural outdoor resource home. This home stands at 2500 SQ Ft which is much smaller than what you would come to expect for a modern home in California. This home’s main purpose is to reduce expenses of living indoors by using all outdoor resources to create a similar environment…
While this 3-bedroom, 2-office, 2500 SF house already represents a substantial reduction in indoor floor area (about 25% from the norm), the inhabitants of this and two other Hover Houses (including the architect’s own house) enable us to study the effectiveness of this model and refine an approach to suit mainstream culture. Hover House 3 responds to the tight confines of it’s 32’ x 95’ lot on the Venice Canals with little pretense as a simple box elevated over the landscape that is fully programmed to facilitate all the functions of a living room, dining room and kitchen. The interior program for the same functions (which the client unfortunately could not be convinced to substantially forego) was reduced in floor area by over 50%.
The hope is that the Hover House concept takes root in the community as a practical model for exchanging built volumes with exterior living equivalents. Ultimately, the homeowners will dictate if the Hover House model can actually exclude the interior community areas to some degree, thus saving cost, resources and reducing the carbon footprint.
Hover House 3 utilizes numerous sustainability-improved technologies. Embodied energy analysis on major systems resulted in the use of exterior man-made slate panels, exposed concrete walls and radiant hydroponic heating and many of the finishes. Natural ventilation is carefully devised with proper window placements and a wind tower that extend 9’ above the roof (the max allowed by code) in order to eliminate air conditioning. Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels offset 80% of power demands. With the exception of interior wall paint, all interior finishes are devised to last indefinitely so that future emissions from finish replacements are minimized or eliminated.
