Architect Buzz Yudell, of Moore Ruble Yudell, and his wife made the decision to move from a rural area into the city so they could be close to work and all that the city has to offer. They settled on an urban lot in Santa Monica, California to design and build a home that merged indoor and outdoor living, just like their home in the country, complete with sustainable measures. The Georgina Residence acts as the perfect test site to potentially guide their future work.
The couple pulled double duty working as both designers and as clients to make the most of the tight lot. They managed to create a two-story home with blurred divisions of indoor and outdoor space.
A gallery-like space connects off the rooms and becomes the transitional space between the interior and exterior.
A double-height space is the core of the home where the living room is placed. The high ceilings incorporate lots of windows which help bring in maximum daylight.
Now that the home is a year old, they’ve discovered that the photovoltaic panels are producing a net surplus of energy, saving about 180,000 pounds of CO2 emissions over the last year. Solar water panels provide radiant heat, hot water, and pool heating.
The way the house is laid out helps to optimize natural cooling, daylight, shading, and heat gain in the winter.
Careful attention was paid to the materials that were used throughout the house as to do as little to impact the environment as possible. They used 100% engineered lumber, 100% FSC-certified plywood, formaldehyde-free millwork, FSC-certified wood veneer, no or low-VOC paints, adhesives, finishes, and sealants, and recycled/recyclable materials, like steel, glass, and aluminum. Materials from the original house were donated and recycled.
The house doesn’t even need air conditioning!
Oh hi, pups, on your cozy bed!
Photos by David O. Marlow.

3 Comments
Institute Of Design on 06.13.2014 at 02:38 AM
It’s nice way to stay in touch with nature while you are at home.
Paul on 06.13.2014 at 03:00 AM
Meh, our house in San Diego doesn’t even have an A/C.. In fact, hardly anyone I know has an A/C. I can probably count how many times I’ve used the heater in the last 10 years on a single hand. Great house and effort, but coastal California is likely the easiest place on the entire continent to be net-zero energy efficient with very little planning. Every new house built here should be able to, and encouraged to, achieve the same.
Kimberly on 11.01.2015 at 09:14 AM
awesome designs, so much time and imagination and MONEY spent…how many does it house? Imagine the situation in Nepal after the earthquake this year, where the homeless in the high mountains in villages cut off by poor roads to the main town so food, medical supplies and building material cannot reach the people, they live in make shift shelters, in tents, tarpaulin. Here we are building homes for 2 or 4 people, when we could be building a simple stable home so that these people will not face another earthquake in fear of losing their homes again.
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