Designing from the Outside In
Moab, Utah · By Roger Clark
Susie Harrington sits cross-legged on the floor of her living room, which doubles as a yoga studio. “Buildings consume approximately one-half of the energy in this country,” she says, then pauses, allowing her group of visitors to write notes. “One of my goals is to reduce that load by shrinking the size of buildings and the energy needed to control their temperature and lighting.”
The Utah home of Susie and her partner, Kalen Jones, illustrates principles that guide their business, w/Gaia Design – self-described as “landscape architecture and sustainable building design, consulting, and educational services.” For example, their home remains cool throughout Moab’s notoriously hot summers, due to thick walls made from straw bales and a roof angled to shade the windows. That same roof allows the heat of the low winter sun to enter and be captured by the mass of adobe floors and earth-plaster walls. When a backup source of heat is needed during weeks of below-freezing temperatures, an efficient heat pump radiates warmth through the floor. Domestic hot water is provided by a solar heating system.
An enthusiastic teacher, Susie outlines other goals: “I try to avoid using building materials that require large amounts of energy to manufacture. Because the ‘embodied energy’ of concrete is quite high, I use it sparingly, only where it is needed in the footings, between the ground and the walls.” She minimizes the amount of lumber required for framing by using post-and-beam construction. “Most of our windows extend upward to the base of the horizontal beams, reducing the need for additional lumber for window headers, and they are framed by load-bearing posts,” she says. “Because lumber comes in standard lengths, I strive to make sure we aren’t wasting it by needlessly cutting boards down to odd sizes.”
Despite her home’s many pragmatic virtues, it is its aesthetics that truly command attention. The adobe floor, with its light finish of linseed oil, has subtle undulations that feel delightful underfoot. The interior walls are sculpted of an earth plaster made with natural pigments that mimic the hues of Moab’s slickrock landscape. Ancient juniper posts, salvaged from a nearby wildfire, accent the interior and support the ceiling, which is crafted from locally harvested aspen.
An inconspicuous loft serves both as a reading nook and as a guest bedroom. The design invites exterior elements into the home, making it feel larger than it really is. A thunderstorm forming over the La Sal Mountains to the east is framed perfectly in the living room’s enormous circular window. The north-facing summer porch and kitchen windows overlook Moab’s wetlands preserve, offering glimpses of passing waterfowl and the changing seasons. The soft sound of water dripping from a seep into a small but deep pool resonates through the southern window screens.
Susie began her career as a building designer, but soon realized a need to apply a more holistic philosophy in designing living space. “When outdoor parts of the home are given an equal or greater importance than the inside, a sense of connection to the outdoors results,” she says. “Creating coherent outdoor spaces that interlock with the interior rooms encourages us to use these spaces.”
Her own garden includes an elegant alcove of intimate garden terraces. The walls of each level are expertly crafted from local sandstone, reminiscent of walls made by the area’s early cliff dwellers. Ninety percent of the drip-irrigated garden plants are edible. The miniature pool at the base of the alcove collects rainwater from the roof and surrounding surfaces. Its shape, and the shade provided by wetland plants, are designed to minimize evaporation. Droplets from the pool’s water are pumped into seeps that feed a hanging garden filled with columbines and meadow-rue. Hummingbirds and insects are everywhere. Another large circular window in the master bedroom looks out upon this idyllic scene.
Susie’s clients include many new arrivals to the Moab area who are interested in custom-designed homes and landscapes. “One of my greatest challenges is to get them to think about building smaller homes,” she says. “I encourage them to consider investing the savings that they can gain from reducing their square footage into better craftsmanship and landscaping.” The result is usually small and superbly comfortable homes of 900 to 1,200 square feet.
Susie is generous in donating her time to local nonprofit groups. While teaching a four-week sustainable building course to a dozen college students from Vermont, the class and local high school students built a straw-bale greenhouse for Moab’s Youth Garden Project. “It worked nicely with the college’s curriculum, which places a strong emphasis on community service,” Susie says.
Susie has been working on several other major projects. One is an environmental education center in Sonoma County, California. In addition to designing an education building that includes a cafeteria, offices, and an assembly hall, the project includes planning for a school garden, greenhouse, outdoor classroom, and a nature trail, as well as restoration of other parts of the site. Another project is a master plan for a hospital and senior living center in Moab that will integrate twenty-six acres of indoor and outdoor living space. Susie also hopes to increase her opportunities for teaching.
The scattered group of visitors meanders through garden pathways, enthralled and not anxious to leave. They look back onto the double-humped rooftop, artfully textured by shakes made from recycled plastic. Susie notes that the newly planted fruit orchard forming the top terrace is designed to obscure the view of a large tower holding high-voltage power lines. As in her practice of yoga, she seeks to balance opposites.
Susie smiles. “The whole point is to help people connect with their landscape, to make the outdoors more livable and to make people happy to be outside. I think people stay inside too much and that doesn’t do anyone any good. In fact, it is a great malaise of our time.” How firmly Susie Harrington believes that becomes clear in her answer to a final question about the size of her home. “Twelve hundred square feet,” she replies, “but that’s just the interior space.”
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