In the quiet Silver Triangle neighborhood east of the Venice Canals, Dwell explores a zero net-energy home with a butterfly-inspired roof and two living walls.
AIA architect David Hertz, known for 747 Wing House, looked to the structure of a butterfly wing when designing this Venice home. The inverted roof naturally captures water that collects in a sump and is used for subsurface irrigation. The roof is just one of the home’s sustainable features, which, Hertz says, “are not compromises to the design; they’re part of the design.”
A living wall of succulents faces the street, absorbing southern sun, while the interior living wall set against the pool grows ferns and edible herbs–together the walls total 90 feet of vegetative vertical space. While environmentalism has long been fundamental to Hertz’ work, this project features overt expressions of sustainability new even to him. For example, glass tubing filed with water-heating fluid had been hidden in previous designs, but are expressed openly here.
• Area: Venice, CA
• Livable square footage: 4,000 square feet
• Number of bedrooms: 4
• Construction completed: 2013
David Hertz FAIA Architect and his firm S.E.A. The Studio of Environmental Architecture is well known as a pioneer in sustainable architecture that thinks well outside the box. The award-winning work has been widely exhibited and published internationally. David Hertz is one of the youngest architects to be elected to the college of Fellows of the American Institute of Architecture for his contributions to the profession. The Mckinley Residence was featured on two covers of Dwell magazine, and Hertz’s recently completed 747 Wing House, a home in Malibu made from the wings of a 747, was selected as a 2012 Record House for Architectural Record Magazine.
- Interior design by Curated. to be revealed during the tour
- Solar Thermal Heating with Evacuated Tubes
- Thermostatically Controlled Windows
- Solar Photovoltaic Panels
- Advanced Lighting Controls
- State-of-the-Art Information Systems
- *A Zero Net Energy Building