Photos: Rodwin Architecture / AliveStudios.com
Photos: Rodwin Architecture / AliveStudios.com
Building a custom green dream home that is harmonious to your lifestyle.
An architect-led custom home that integrates everything you want – beauty, function and sustainability – while respecting your budget and your schedule is the stuff of dreams – and of real-life dream homes, thanks to Boulder County’s premier design/build team Rodwin Architecture and Skycastle Construction.
For two decades, the award-winning team, founded by Scott Rodwin, AIA, LEED AP, has been transforming dreams into extraordinarily beautiful, sensible and efficient custom homes.
In fact, while Colorado’s green building regulations are among the most rigorous in the country, Rodwin Architecture and Skycastle Construction, with years of expertise in sustainable craftsmanship, elegantly translate those rules into tangible benefits for the home owner, such as low utility bills and healthy indoor air quality.
Rodwin explained, “Creating a custom home can be one of the most satisfying and enduring expressions of who you are and how you want to live,” Rodwin said. “Most people never have the opportunity to live in a house that’s tailored to their lives. We start every project by carefully listening to our client’s goals – not just for their house, but for how they want to live in it.” Rodwin’s design team takes those client concerns and fuses them with what the team learns from the home site, highlighting the site’s topography, optimal views and direction of the sun.
Exquisite sustainability
Rodwin Architecture and Skycastle Construction have successfully completed multiple LEED Platinum Homes (the highest green building verification offered by the US Green Building Council), including their innovative Hoefling House. This near-net-zero energy home is filled with green features, including a “live” green roof, 10kW PV solar panels discretely tucked onto the roof, a ground-source heat pump, foam insulation, an energy recovery ventilator and water-conserving fixtures.
The 3,000-square-foot home incorporates sustainability into a thoughtful, creative design reflecting the client’s lifestyle: clerestory windows welcome light and suggest a floating roof, and the Doug Fir ceiling stretches into oversized eaves.
Indoor/outdoor living is paramount: there are decks off of every bedroom. On the ground floor the sleek kitchen effortlessly connects to the outdoor garden and fruit tree orchard. Interior Travertine tile heated floors lead through sliding doors to a white concrete patio featuring a built-in BBQ and gas fire pit. Indoors, the simple open-concept floor plan, flowing seamlessly between public spaces, celebrates the natural environment.
Beautiful, innovative design
While Rodwin Architecture is best known for its warm, modern designs, the team offers an impressive variety of styles, including craftsman, modern, mountain and farmhouse. The design team relishes crafting “living art” homes that are distinct expressions of their clients’ personalities and preferences, Rodwin said.
For example, as the Hoefling House client desired a warm palette interwoven with the home site and deeply sustainable in performance, the home’s design reflects a meticulous balance between showcasing mountain views and passive solar design. A custom-designed pair of laser-cut barn doors inspired by the towering trees on the site opens to an 18th century Chinese day-bed off of the family room. Gorgeous board formed concrete panels clad both the interior and exterior. The bathrooms sport handmade glass mosaic tiles, and one shower is designed to resemble a waterfall.
One of Rodwin’s favorite parts of home design, he said, is “when we deliver the conceptualized design to the client, and for the first time they see something beyond what they ever imagined they could have, a home uniquely expressing in personality and life aspirations.” He continued, “This is the fundamental part of why we do what we do. After all, your home is foundational in creating a high quality of life.”
A custom home with a customized process
The firm’s secret sauce is what comes next: Their design/build delivery system seamlessly integrates the design and construction process. Brandon David, head of Skycastle Construction, holds an Environmental Design degree from CU and leads construction from a holistic approach. “The structure, mechanical systems, building envelope, finishes and even landscape are all one complete design,” David said. “We integrate those design ideas with a builder’s perspective right from the start. That helps to control costs and ensures that our client’s original vision and intention is carried out through the final details.”
Rodwin added, “We realize clients have three main priorities: quality, budget and schedule. We have a very flexible process to accommodate our clients’ wishes and how much or little they want to be involved in the process. We want the process to be as satisfying as the end result.”
Rodwin Architecture offers a free site visit and project feasibility analysis to potential clients. They are eager to help you understand the budget, timeline and local regulations so that you can decide if creating a new custom home is the right move.
> To learn more about a custom green dream home, visit rodwinarch.com and skycastleconstruction.com.
By Sarah Huber, Photos: Rodwin Architecture / AliveStudios.com
