Situated in a pocket of classic oak woodlands of Portola Valley, California, the completed Hillside House is an extensive residential expansion for a home owned by an energy consultant. The design, by fieldArchitecture, embraces the site’s natural slope with rooms and stair corridors oriented toward views throughout the valley.
Premier structural insulated panels, SIPs, were chosen to not only provide the structural integrity and energy efficiency sought by the owner and architect, also the pre-engineered framing system achieves clean and elegant building forms and lines, and allows for exterior and interior finishes that are almost impossible to obtain in conventional framing. SIPs worked in concert with steel beams and structural supports, and provided embed cavities to hide certain steel beam conditions to gain certain design effects. The roof panels were tapered to provide a smooth slope to the roof, barring any ‘stepped’ roof design or interior ceiling height changes. Rain gutters were channeled into the SIPs to remove their visibility. Extensive use of can lighting required special chase fabrication into the roof panels to accommodate fixtures. The expertise of SHELL Building Systems with Premier SIP design, engineering and fabrication accomplished the intricate details sought by the owner and architect.
We thank SHELL for providing project photography and details for this write up. Visit our Hillside House photo gallery for more construction and completed photos. Want to see what other projects have used SIPs, visit our extensive online photo gallery for inspiration.