Residences

 

Strawbale Residence, Casita, & Hangar (2006) - Borrego Springs, California

Residence: This 4,768 sq ft, 5-bedroom strawbale residence features an underground garage and utility space. The structural system is composed of wood, steel posts and reclaimed timber beams with strawbale infill. A passive solar energy system creates hot water for the pool, while the subterranean garage provides passive cooling.

Although it's underground, the garage takes advantage of the desert sunshine and uses daylighting as part of the lighting scheme. Light flows into the garage through light wells in the curved walls, and the glass bottom of the circular fountain.

Other features include: rooftop viewing deck, custom stained glass doors and light features, custom mosaic tile, custom railings and gates.

Casita: The 1,560 square-foot guest house is attached to the east end of a 5,100 square-foot tilt-up concrete airplane hanger. The building incorporates passive solar design and clerestory windows to facilitate natural cooling. A radiused blue metal trellis softens the building visually while shading the outdoor patio.

Team: Architects - Hubbell & Hubbell Architects; Structural Engineer – Orion Engineering; Contractor – Lang Contracting; Art Elements – James T. Hubbell

 

Residence & Guesthouse (2006) - San Diego, California

The owners wanted a home that blends the soft, curving lines of an adobe home with the simple clean lines of Japanese architecture. The result is a single story 1-bedroom, 1,255 sq ft single family residence, a 276 sq ft guest house and 484 sq ft carport. The curved walls anchor the building to the hillside, while providing natural lighting and ventilation through the clerestory windows. The Japanese-influenced portion of the home integrates large overhangs, making it feel as thought it soars over the hillside.

Using wood post-and-beam construction, this home includes green materials such as Tridi panels, which are made of recycled plastic / polystyrene insulation and a recycled steel mesh. Clay plaster is used on interior walls. Low-water landscaping near the home features cacti and succulents. Natural materials were used wherever possible, so the organic farm the building sits on would not be affected. Photovoltaic panels generate enough solar energy for the residence. In fact, they produce excess energy that gets returned to the electrical grid. The residence is so well insulated that a single wood-burning stove in the living area provides enough heat for the home. To cool the home, the residents simply open their windows and allow evening breezes to flow through.

Team: Designer – James T. Hubbell; Architect - Hubbell & Hubbell Architects; Structural Engineer - Palos Verdes Engineering; Mosaic Art – Emilie Ledieu

 

Phillips Residence (2005) – San Diego, California

Inspired by a mysterious sense of being washed ashore in a coastal canyon, the design for this three-bedroom home and art studio was massed along an imagined “high tide” line. Terraced roofs rise from the understated entry, allowing neighboring viewsheds to be maintained. The secluded feeling belies its developed surroundings.

After growing up in a hilltop home in Point Loma and spending a great deal of his youth exploring the canyon below, our client eventually purchased the canyon lot with hopes of building his own home there. Because of their connection to the land and neighborhood, the owners wanted a home that would blend into the surrounding canyon, keep most of the natural landscape intact, and preserve the neighbors’ views down the canyon to the ocean. Other project parameters included:

- Emphasize ocean and canyon views. Although the view corridor is quite small, all of the living areas enjoy views, even the kitchen. The owner loves being able to look out at the ocean from the kitchen island. The master bathroom is the only “landlocked” room in the house.

- Create a natural feel without using a great deal of wood. Although mostly comprised of plastered walls, warmth is created by the economical use of wood on the exterior and decks; and is continued inside with bamboo floors, exposed Glu-Lam beams, and 1x wood ceiling, natural daylighting, and an operable window wall at kitchen/dining for indoor/outdoor living. Reclaimed pavers and splayed railroad ties were used to expand the “high tide” concept into the landscaping.

- Respond to a tight building envelope. The architect worked with the owners to organize a 3-dimensional “jigsaw” puzzle with spaces as individual as the people using them, and to create natural circulation flow through a split level home. The stepped design allows the home to be simultaneously perched above and nestled into the canyon, providing both cozy and airy spaces.

Click here for a pdf of the Phillips Residence project team with contact information:
Phillips_ProjectTeam.pdf

 

DeRenouard Residence Jamul, California 2001

The DeRenouard residence is located in a desert bioregion some distance from the ocean where surrounding temperatures can reach into the high 90s or low 100s in the summer and descend below freezing in the winter. It was named Sustainable Home of the Year by San Diego Home & Garden Magazine in February, 2002, and is featured in the book Sustainable Architecture Low-Tech (Linksbooks.net of Barcelona, Spain, 2002).

Environmental features

Super-insulated straw bale walls make the building act like a thermos that retains heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. Title 24 energy calculations show that the house exceeds standard compliance by 31.2%.

Solar hot water panels help heat water for the black-bottom swimming pool with integrated mosaic tile insert.

High ceilings and operable transom windows allow heat to rise above the living space and be drawn out through natural convection.

Larger roof overhangs on the south-facing walls minimize solar gain during summer and allow for passive solar heat gain in winter.

Slate flooring over concrete slab and plaster walls provides additional thermal mass during cool winter months.

R-40 blown-in cellulose insulation in the ceiling is an environmentally sound material.

A portion of the building's north edge is embedded into the hillside to take advantage of thermal storage in the earth's crust.

Native landscaping requires minimal water and low maintenance.

 

Dunham-Kidwell Residence

Stylistically akin to California's historic missions, the Dunham-Kidwell straw-bale residence is built around a large boulder. The boulder's thermal mass and its surrounding moat in the home's great room cool and humidify the air in summer and passively heat it in winter. Above the boulder is a central tower with an oversized fan that draws air up and out in summer and re-circulates warm air in the winter months. Featured in an article by Bill Manson in the Los Angeles Times on June 8, 2001.

 

Environmental Features

Super insulated straw bale walls make the building act like a thermos that holds warm air during the winter and cool air during the summer. Title 24 energy calculations show the house exceeds California standard compliance by 41%.

Solar panels pre-heat the water and future photovoltaic panels in conjunction with existing inverter and battery storage will eventually provide most of the home's electricity.

Central tower with oversized fan draws air up and out in summer months and recirculates warm air in winter months.

Roof overhangs and arched arcade minimize solar heat gain during the summer

Water trough and boulder's thermal mass in the great room cool and humidify the air in summer and passively heat the air in the winter

Earthen plaster interior walls and earthen floors consist of all natural materials that do not emit chemicals, unlike more conventional finishes

Xeriscape landscaping (low water and low maintenance)

 

Ecke Residence Remodel Leucadia, California 2001

The Ecke/Hampton residence is a custom remodel located on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean. The house combines fine craftsmanship with integral art elements including a domed shell over the master bedroom, a mosaic stained-glass shower and an inlaid stone spa.

 

Beaton Residence Jamul, California 1996

This residence was designed for Jan and Sherry Beaton in 1996. It is set on a beautiful site next to Lyon’s Peak in Jamul, CA- east of San Diego. The house is nestled next to 20 foot boulders that suggest a chapel. Jan and Sherry along with their friends were very involved with the construction of the house and the grounds.

The strong horizontal lines and arches both contrast and relate to the dramatic landscape forms and light and are suggestive of the southwest.

 

Shimeall Guest House

Nestled at the foot of the San Ysidro Mountains in the Borrego Springs Desert sits San Diego County's first permitted straw bale building - the Shimeall guest house. Although California state law now permits the use of straw bale construction, at the time we were designing Shimeall we found it important to put together a source book for the building officials to help educate them and answer their concerns about an unfamiliar material and construction method. By educating the planning engineers prior to plan submittal, the review process was actually less involved than many conventionally framed structures we have worked on.

The 500 square foot plan for the guest house was developed from a series of site and zoning opportunities/restrictions. The semi-circular design with central patio gives the structure a much larger appearance than one would imagine from the limited size. Views to the North along with the need to minimize the intense summer heat of Borrego Springs helped determine the northern orientation while progressively smaller windows from East to West help take advantage of passive solar gain during the winter months. One very rewarding aspect of this project was the weekend workshops in which volunteers joined together in a community-building experience to learn about straw-bale construction techniques and to "raise" the walls together. The two-foot thick walls add a sense of permanence and stability as well as a sculptural quality to the structure.

 

Vint Residence Del Mar, California 1983 - 1984

This house in Del Mar, California is separated into two geodesic domes and connected additional square rooms. The domes were created by filling room-size polyurethane bags with hot air, spraying approximately 3 inches of foam inside the bag and then rimming the circumference with re-bar. More foam coats the steel and is then plastered.

One dome houses the master bedroom and bath. The other dome contains the living room, dining room, kitchen, bath, and upstairs study. The study is deliberately separated from the main part of the house and is reached via an outdoor stairway.

 

La Jolla Guest House La Jolla, California 1991

This structure was conceived as a space to be used for healing and renewal, as well as for sheltering guests.

 

Davidson Residence Alpine, California 1972

The Davidson Residence was built in 1972 in Alpine, California, east of San Diego. The home was constructed by the owners and their friends and it was the first home, outside of the Ilan-Lael site, designed by Hubbell. The residence is approximately 800 square feet and is constructed of steel and sprayed concrete.

 

 

Hubbell Residence Santa Ysabel, California 1958 – Present

(Excerpts from “Building From The Earth Up” by Anne Hubbell)

The echo of wedding bells was still in the air when James and I acquired this land in 1958. Our intent was to create a home that appeared to grow out of the landscape and blend naturally with the gifts of nature. After fashioning a road that curved through the silvery sage and chaparral and digging a deep well through the granite, we started to build.

No bulldozers were used and footings were hand-dug. Wildflowers and brush were kept and appreciated for their beauty without irrigation. Weekends were involved with picnic work parties as friends helped us mix cement and gather rocks in a little red wagon. And so with the stone from this land, adobe bricks, and cedar from a sawmill in Julian, the first structure was accomplished.

Our family was able to stretch out and enjoy more spacious quarters in 1962 when we moved into the living, dining and kitchen dwelling.

 

The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom was the first free-form sculptural building; it was all done by hand. Later buildings used a low pressure cement spraying machine to cover the large areas.

 

The Big Studio

Here James used steel rib construction with six inch “I” beams for the first time. This was covered with a network of re-bar and plaster wire and it was sprayed with its cement plaster cloak in 1965.

 

The Small Gallery

Salvage adobe and fired brick form the walls of this building. The roof is covered with tile made in Tecate, Mexico. The effect of the tiled roof is like drapery.

 

The Pool

The pool was built around 1970. A tiled stone bench hides the pool filter. The gazebo roof is formed of cast concrete segments and carved urethane foam over a resin picnic table illuminated by a small leaded glass skylight.

 

The Boys’ House

This habitable sculpture was started in the early seventies. The tan clay tiles on the steps and floor were rolled out with a rolling pin, shaped, coded, dried, fired and reassembled on the floor over a period of about eight years by James and some friends. The lively leaded glass roof in the bathroom showers the bather with color.

 

The Sculpture Gallery

The sculpture gallery was built in the 1970’s. It serves as both storage and gallery to show larger works.

 

The Drafting Studio

The most recent building on the property, the drafting studio was built in 1982. It is constructed of a metal truss system which could be made of a lighter steel than was previously used.