Daylighting is vital to your enjoyment of living, working, and playing within your deep green home. This super-insulated metal-clad 600 s.f. addition provides valuable live-at-home work space. One of the primary design issues was daylighting, a necessity for a tapestry weaver using natural dyes. 
Locating and sizing the daylight apertures (windows, doors, skylights) such that the architectural surfaces (walls, ceiling, floor) receive and reflect the natural light is an effective way to reduce the need for electric lighting in a deep green home. Maximizing wall display area, clerestory windows (high windows above eye level) admit daylight.
Kalwall was chosen instead of conventional glass to diffuse direct sunlight, offer privacy from adjacent apartment dwellers, and reduce heat loss. Also, the local Kalwall distributor had unused panels leftover from a large commercial project so the price was right. Lowering the large structural wood beam allows natural light to illuminate the entire ceiling plane while providing an implied separation between the circulation and work spaces and providing a scaffold for flexible positioning of work lights. If you’d like to see more pictures of this space, check out the Daylighted Studio.
Architect: Rathmann Design, Inc.
Builders: 3LP Builders, Inc. with Carpenter Construction and Daystar Construction
