Field notes from the forest floor to the ridge line.
Essays on biophilic design, natural materials, and the quiet craft of building homes that breathe with their landscape.
Why Continuous Insulation Makes a Home More Comfortable
The insulation between your studs is only part of the story. Learn how a continuous thermal layer can help improve comfort and reduce heat transfer.
Read essay
How Roof Overhangs Keep High-Performance Homes Cooler and More Comfortable
Large windows and mountain views don't have to mean overheated rooms — how roof overhangs and exterior shading stop summer heat before it reaches the glass.
Designing With the Sun: Why Home Orientation Matters
How thoughtful home orientation can improve comfort, daylight, and energy performance — the first item on the Phius Design Checklist, and the first question we ask about any site.
Why a High-Quality Weather-Resistive Barrier Matters in a High-Performance Home
The most important layer of your home's exterior may be one you never see — how a high-quality WRB protects the structure, controls air leakage, and manages moisture for decades.
The Advantages of High-Performance Windows Recommended by Phius
Better comfort, lower loads, greater durability, and smarter passive-building design — why Phius-certified windows matter in a high-performance home.
Benefits of an ENERGY STAR® Certified Home
More than an energy-efficient house — an independently verified ENERGY STAR certified home delivers superior comfort, lower utility bills, healthier indoor air, and long-term durability.
Why Airtightness Matters: The Foundation of High-Performance Homes
How airtight construction shapes the comfort, health, efficiency, and durability of high-performance homes built to LEED, ENERGY STAR, and PHIUS standards.
Light as a Building Material
How we treat daylight as the first and most honest material in every home — oriented to the sun's path, captured through clerestories, and softened through deep reveals.
The Hands Behind Rammed Earth
A visit to our earthworks studio, where layers of local soil are tamped into walls that carry the geology of the site itself.
Letters from the studio
Occasional notes on new projects, material experiments, and the slow craft of biophilic building. No noise — roughly one letter a season.