Casa Familia by Kevin deFreitas
Architect Kevin deFreitas has designed a home for his family in San Diego, California.
You can watch a video of Kevin giving a tour of the house – here.
Full description after the photos….
Casa Familia by Kevin deFreitas
A reinterpretation of quintessential Southern Californian courtyard houses; this is a modestly sized home that lives much bigger than it really is by thoughtfully opening up to, and engaging the landscape and wonderfully temperate coastal climate. It is a home that simultaneously looking towards the future (technologically feature rich), while remembering the low-tech comfort strategies of the past, a time before air conditioning and forced air units existed.
The goal of this project was to design and construct a highly efficient home that would employ passive and active strategies to significantly reduce energy, water, and resource consumption all while delivering a modern, comfortable and livable home for a young family of six.
Through concerted research, experimentation and a good measure of faith, the house proved a success consuming 65% less electricity than state mandated standards, and 55% less water than homes of comparable size without sacrificing comfort or aesthetics. From an architectural standpoint it was important to dispel the common public misperception that efficiency and conservation has to look “hippie” or alternative.
Like the song says, “it’s not easy being green,” but it likewise is not difficult either, and the ramifications for future generations are enormous.
Visit the deFreitas Architects website – here.
Lance on 21 Jul 2009 at 2:56 pm #
I FRIGGIN’ LOVE THIS HOUSE!
I whine about modern being too cold sometimes but I’ve seen some great homes on contemporist that were modern and warm, but this house is one that it looks like someone actually lives here.
It’s modern yet warm, large but cozy, full of great pops of color, etc. It’s not excessive, but it’s very expressive. I simply can not think of a single thing that I would change.
My compliments to the architects.
Lance
Alan on 21 Jul 2009 at 3:37 pm #
I think this house would be better if it didn’t use so many materials on both the exterior and interior.
KP on 21 Jul 2009 at 6:36 pm #
I agree Alan…. There is way too much commotion going on in each area of the home.
Lance on 21 Jul 2009 at 9:03 pm #
Too many materials? Wood, glass, concrete, metal, composite… The same materials that are used in pretty much every new home construction in some form or another? How would you make a home without all of these materials? Go Adobe?
Commotion KP? Where do you find commotion in this house? The room that the kids are in? Ok, I will give you that, but the home is obviously appreicated and used by the owners. It’s not some overpriced piece of “art” that a lot of modern homes aspire to, not that it’s a bad thing of course, but the point of this house is that it belongs a real family and is used “normally” on a daily basis.
Commotion in the media room? I defy you to point out commotion in this room. It’s calm and the view just accentuate that point.
I think the commotion you speak of comes from the fabrics on the bedding and the flooring in the bathroom. There are a few too many repetitive circles in the home in terms of the fabric I’ll agree, but that is easily changed. I would have personally put solid concrete in for the bathroom floor and buffed the hell out of it though.
But this is not one of your typical Melbourne home that is all white with a splash of wood on the site with azure blue water and skies for days… It’s a home in which a family with young children live and is trying to be stimulative without being gawdy and I think they succeeded on every level, save for the bedding of course.
But to each his own of course and I’m sure there are other homes in which we all find them stunning.
Alan on 21 Jul 2009 at 10:12 pm #
Yes, there are too many materials (and colors), especially on the exterior.
On the exterior alone, I see:
stucco (painted in 4 colors)
cor-ten steel
beveled clapboard siding
black slate tiles
Some kind of other tiles (underneath the 2nd floor walkway)
Exposed wood beams and rafters on one side of the roof, but not the other?
There are two completely different types of windows (which are also different colors)
It’s just kind of an incoherent mess. The elements don’t have any unity to eachother. There’s nothing wrong with the materials individually, but putting so many of them together on a single house exterior is just too much.
It’s the architects own house, so I’m sure he’s happy with it, but I wouldn’t be.
zachary on 21 Jul 2009 at 11:30 pm #
this house is tragic. way too much going on. its a shame…it looks like it has good bones.
Alan on 22 Jul 2009 at 12:03 am #
There’s a lot of thought put into the environmentally friendliness of the home.
Gotta give it credit for that.
Chris on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:56 am #
I agree, there looks like there is way too much going on material wise on the exterior (and even at some points in the interior). The setup and design details(minus the materials), looks solid to me, and would be better suited to just a few materials that complimented each other better. What was bothering me was on the inside, where the different shades of wood are meshed together. I mean I know these are all recycled materials, and it adds to the sustainable features of the house, but there has to be a happy medium. I’ve seen other houses where it works, but for some reason I don’t like how a dark natural wood is blended with a more manufactured lighter tan-ish color wood. But, I do love the 11th picture, where the window seems like a picture frame, with no mulleans as distractions.
Philip on 22 Jul 2009 at 11:10 am #
Having been to this house, during a local AIA San Diego event, I can attest that it is more coherent than the pictures might appear.
The house is very well planned to create a different experience in each space and the materials are ones which will wear gracefully given the high traffic of a large family. I think this is an interesting contrast to typical modern which can bore with starkness. It is a very functional-modern which makes a much larger space out of a small area.
Rob on 25 Jul 2009 at 8:23 pm #
What I like about this house is the very strong connection to the landscape and the city view beyond; the huge windows, and big sliders that open up to the yard seems to take advantage of the temperate So. Cal. climate and casual lifestyle. Nice job!
jorge on 29 Jul 2009 at 1:35 pm #
less is a bore! i applaud any modern architect who dares to actually use the spaces he dreams of.
Ali on 08 Aug 2009 at 6:55 pm #
Fan of the floor lights in the hallway and the small and non-overbearing inlaid bookshelf in the hall as well. Its lived in and beautifully so.
Kd on 15 Aug 2009 at 5:14 pm #
I think this is a gorgeous home. It is modern but still warm and liveable especially for a family with 4 children, which is a pleasant option compared to the perfectly stark, mono-chromatic, museum like homes the mags love. Nice job, I would live here
zachary on 26 Sep 2009 at 5:52 pm #
this house is very busy. It borrows from several designs mashes them all together and it simply doesn’t work. I have seen some of this architects other work and it is pretty basic. this seems to be his first effort working with a larger budget and he appears to have went wild, adding all the elements together at once that he probably wanted to use on previous projects with a smaller budget but could not. I prefer some of the more basic work he has done with a smaller budget.
Guillermo on 10 Oct 2009 at 9:33 am #
I will be making a trip to San Diego, and hope drive by and visit this house, Not only is it beautiful, but so very sustainable and efficient. Well done!
Frank O. on 19 Dec 2009 at 4:16 pm #
This is a beautifully detailed house! I love the color and materials used throughout.