Seven Days Newspaper highlights Passive House movement

Seven Days had a great feature on Passive House and other energy efficient building techniques this past week.

This being a statewide newspaper it can potentially introduce the Passive House building concept to many Vermonters who have never heard of it.

Check out the article at
http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/does-the-ultra-efficient-passive-house-point-the-way-to-carbon-neutrality/Content?oid=2500123

Arrodesign is one of the few Certified Passive House Builders in the Vermont.

Concrete soaking tub

This is a very neat project.

This is a very deep(think up to your shoulders deep) concrete soaking tub that we fabricated as part of a much larger project.

The window that the bathtub sits against provides a great connection with the mountains outside.

We think it came out pretty nice.

Revisiting a moment of glory

Pouring the columns on our South Burlington project brought our memories back about 7 years ago to our very tall column pour.  We poured almost 30' of column in one shot.

The manufacturer of the fabric form was very impressed so they highlighted it on their website

http://www.fab-form.com/fast-tube/fast-tubeProjectTreeHouse.php

To see some more pictures of this project check out our website

http://www.arrodesign.org/projects/concrete-treehouse/

ideas for a possible furniture in flexible molds for concrete

This is a scale model prototype for a concrete table partly formed in a flexible mold. 

Taking advantage of the flexibility of the fabric is easy to grow the legs that support the slab of the table. Connections are made out of solid metal.

The flexibility of the mold allows different configurations as well.

Prickly Mountain New Bathroom

Here is a teaser shot of a project we just finished up on Prickly Mountain in Warren, VT.

Drop in tub, the wall covering is reused standing seam roofing

This job was a very fun mix of complicated framing, energy retrofitting, great clients, and a fun collaboration.  We think it turned out quite nicely.  The job consisted of significantly increasing the third floor master bedroom size, adding two bathrooms, and a sleeping porch open to the stars.  The homeowners allowed us to get creative with a two concrete shower with some fabric forming and flat panels, reusing the old rusted standing seam roof as a wall covering for the drop in platform soaking tub, and some fun metal railings.  The homeowner  is a great artist and she did all the wall finishes and we were continually impressed with her work.  More photos to follow soon.

Arro project recently published in Vermont Magazine.  Check it out.

Vermont Magazine September October 201

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ArroDesign gets deep into a Deep Energy Retrofit

Our current project has us digging deep into a home in South Burlington.  The house was designed and built by a local well known architect who was more architect than builder.   We have come across some very interesting construction techniques.
This project will be a multi-phase effort.
The first phase of the project consists of several parts, digging out the foundation to correct drainage issues and ledge removal, wrapping the basement with 6.5' of EPS foam for some serious insulation, drainage mat, and some serious ledge removal.
The highlight of the first phase will be a new monitor on top of a stunning new low pitch roof with some soaring angles.  This will allow for some serious airsealing and insulation upgrades.  We are shooting for R-75 for the new roof section which covers a large portion of the house.  The low pitch roof extends out to create a new patio space, all held up with some signature Arrodesign fabric formed concrete columns.  The rest of the roof will get a polyiso foam sweater and will be sealed up with a nice new standing seam roof.  At the same time the roof will be extended to give the house some much needed overhangs.

Pictures to follow....