Tips For Designing Your Mountain Home
Building sites in mountainous areas can offer great rewards – whether that’s a perfect view towards your favorite mountain peak or direct access to a private trout stream. With those rewards also come challenges when it comes to design and construction of your dream home. Below we explain just a few of the major components that we consider during our design process.
Sloped Sites –Steep, heavily treed sites, modestly sloped open meadows and everything between; we strive to embrace all of these characteristics of the terrain and find creative ways to optimize the house’s location on the site.
Solar Gain – Solar gain can have positive and negative impacts on your interior spaces. When designing homes in the colder climates of mountain regions, we study sun angles throughout the calendar year to maximize solar gain during the winter months and reduce it during summer months. We study the orientation of the home, shading devices, window and door sizes and locations, and several other components when considering solar gain.
Views – Sometimes the site location provides a singular, yet spectacular view of one overwhelmingly beautiful mountain peak. Maybe that bombshell is delivered when guests enter the Living Room; or maybe you save that view for yourself when you awaken every morning. Maybe it’s both. We work with you to find out how you want to experience the majestic landscape that surrounds your site and design with that goal in mind.
Snow – Most likely, when designing a home in the mountains, snow is going to be a factor. We work closely with our engineers to ensure that the structure is designed appropriately to withstand the weight during those epic winters that provide the type of skiing we all dream about. And when the snow starts to melt, we want to have a plan for that as well so we explore roof slopes and runoff patterns to manage all of that moisture.
Energy Performance – Along with the snow, mountain areas tend to provide long, cold winters. We design all of our homes to meet the latest Energy Code requirements so as to ensure that your home’s performance provides a comfortable interior environment even when it seems winter will never end. We specify the latest material technologies when it comes to insulation, windows and doors.
Materials – Along with the snow and occasional daily temperature swings of 60 degrees or more, there are several other environmental factors that can impact the performance of your home in the mountains. With years of experience studying and specifying materials, we are always working to maximize the life and minimize the maintenance on your home’s exterior. We know what works well, but we are always exploring new technologies that may outperform the “norm”.
The A43 Team knows how to build homes in the mountains. If you are looking for an architecture team that knows the ins and outs of designing on unique terrain, give us a call at (307) 249-8650.
To learn more about the steps and team needed to build your mountain dream home click here.