Hidden Villa
Skillful Means
completed construction for a new office building and library at Hidden
Villa, a popular summer camp and environmental education center which. lies snuggled in the Los Altos hills--in the folds of Silicon Valley. The building will demonstrate, to 30,000 visitors a year, a variety of environmentally friendly strategies: passive solar, solar hot water and solar electric, rainwater reclaimation, sustainably harvested lumber and straw-bale construction. As reported in Environmental
Building News,
the building features the first ever sustainably harvested manufactured
trusses from Hayward
Lumber's Green Materials Division.
The light wood frame......filled in with bales......
Then plastered and colored with a lime wash...
The interiors are brightly lit by clerestory windows reflected by smooth, white plaster walls....
The conference room features a straw-bale bench against an earth-plastered wall., and lovely views of the organic gardens.
The folks at Hidden Villa were committed to the creation of an environmentally friendly building that would be a pleasant working envoirnment and an extiting place for children to visit. The Hidden Villa staff and architects Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper (SLSC) were great partners to work with in the creation of this unique and inspiring place.
Skillful Means
www.skillful-means.com