Earth Day: Responsible Real Estate

To celebrate the 52nd Earth Day, here are 4 architecturally unique and eco-friendly residential homes azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson Real Estate has represented and sold!

For those of us who live in this unique desert environment, climate issues have become so intertwined with our daily lives. Climate change has led to hotter temperatures and drier conditions.  We’ve come to understand that just about everything is connected, and therefore, how we live affects our community. Like our heat-sculpted western landscape, climate is far more than the weather. It’s what we create, what we are, how we live, and how we move about the Valley.

You might think your home is just that – a home. But it’s also an important piece of the environment. The good news is that Eco-friendly homes aren’t just sustainable. With rising energy costs looming, they might actually save you money in the long run.

azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson Real Estate remains deeply committed to historic preservation and are proud EcoBroker® Affiliates.

GEORGE 5600/CHRISTENSEN’S COURT | STUDIO MA ARCHITECTS

 

With amazing details, stunning modern eco-friendly design, luxurious floorplans, and a convenient location that calls both North Central Phoenix and the Biltmore Corridor it’s home, The George is one of the most interesting and refined in-fill properties developed in Phoenix.

At first glance, you might not think “green.” But this 2,400 square foot home uses durable materials that last for decades. Xeriscape landscape design with natural paving ensures little to no irrigation. Decomposed granite and a perforated driveway actually allows water to percolate back to the aquifer. Native plants adapt to heat and use less water. The steel facade is even recyclable.

A dynamic arrangement of eye-catching metal skins blend in with the coloration and textures of the neighborhood’s pecan-lined streets and the dark rust color of the Arizona mesquite. Low-e glass lowers heat transfer and keeps interiors cooler, and its breathable structure promotes improved air quality.

This eco-friendly dream home reminds us that sustainability and modern living are not mutually exclusive.

TEMPE URBAN LIVING | Baldinger Studio Architects

 

In the desert, there is an abundance of sunlight. How a building shapes that light is an important design decision. This project uses a type of solar shading system known as Brie Soleil (French for sun-breaker) that employs a series of horizontal or vertical blades to control the amount of sunlight and solar heat that enters a building. This architectural element shades windows from hot sun and allows natural light with lower summer heat gain.

Three unique levels are connected by an open stairwell that acts a light shaft, drawing the sun from a large skylight deep into the dwelling unit. Semi-enclosed roof top terraces expand the livable space year round and frames views of the city’s skyline. The dwellings are open-plan, uncomplicated and feature energy efficient mechanical systems, enhanced day-lighting, and minimalist Architectural detailing.

The property runs off of a High SEER HVAC, but it has a solar hot water option, making it environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient. As if that wasn’t cool enough, it’s situated near the Light Rail, encouraging use of mass transit. The modern living experience here, and it’s green.

PRD845 | STUDIO MA Architects

 

Developed by Greenroof LLC and designed by Studio Ma, PRD 845 is an urban infill project in Downtown Phoenix, adjacent to the Roosevelt Historic and Arts Districts. A sensitive cluster of twelve condominium homes, this enclave is organized around two, private “mews” that mix cars and people in an intimate and compelling urban-type environment.

Unit sizes range from 900 to 2,200 square feet and are designed to accommodate an active, live-work life style with ground floor garage / studio spaces and large outdoor roof decks with views of downtown Phoenix and the surrounding mountains. The folded roof plane creates volumetric slots through the complex giving PRD its unique, “skyline” profile.

Carefully chosen building materials compliment the south-west desert environment and include an innovative rain-screen design wall design made of a low mass, corrugated, fiber-reinforced concrete panels on furring channels that allows accumulated heat to escape through a slot at the top of the wall.

These homes are situated near the Light Rail to promote multi-modal transportation, which minimizes the impact on the natural environment.

The architects make it a point to acknowledge the dynamic relationship between objects and their surrounding environment. This is at the heart of sustainability consciousness.

LOLOMA 5 | Bruder+Partners Architects

 

The first built under the City of Scottsdale Green Building Program, Loloma 5 is a thoughtful and sophisticated acknowledgement of the traditional and modern roots of its Old Town Scottsdale context. A place with pride in its false-front, covered boardwalk, and “old west” friendly downtown image. The project creates a live/work environment in the heart of Scottsdale that celebrates both the historic and physical context of the place. Just like the others, it’s designed with sustainability in mind.

Approached from the west face along Marshall Way, clients and friends of the Loloma community are welcomed by a small natural desert garden. The project emerges from the plane of the land by a first level architectural plinth of sandblasted rose gray concrete masonry units. Above the block, the west façade serves as a shield against the sun with its ribbed gray Rheinzinc cladding and deep recessed narrow vertical windows of varied widths.

Along the south, patios connect in a linear courtyard to create intimate entries for each of the five units. Angled planes project outward above the doors, breaking down the verticality and further expressing each individual unit. These corrugated metal planes seem to fly passed one another, connected only by a long sliver of light from recessed slot windows. Limiting the intense southern light, each of the corrugated planes is punctured only with a single simple square of glass.

In scale, proportion, details, and finely articulated materials, Loloma 5 draws carefully from its local context and environment, carving out a unique place between the history and future of Scottsdale, for comfortable and sustainable urban desert living. azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson operate out of this special Will Bruder designed complex.