WHAT IS WHOLE HOUSE THINKING?

The greenest thing we can do, as designers and builders and forward thinking innovators - is to make our existing buildings work beautifully and prepare them to last the next hundred years. That means that we need to look at the home as a whole to understand what does and doesn’t work. What spaces do we need to create and prioritize? Where can we borrow space that is not being used well? By working through the design of the whole, we can very strategically remove and add.

NOVA’s design process is to intentionally think through the whole house - and its relationship to the land - as we design.  We believe that putting an addition onto a house that does not work in terms of flow, circulation, sightlines, light, etc makes little or no sense. If you proceed that way, you may end up with a larger house that still doesn’t function well.  We often find that no addition is necessary if the existing space is reconfigured in a thoughtful and intelligent way. This allows us to do more transformational design work within a smaller budget.

Builders, HVAC, structural, electrical, and solar consultants also help us transform and update the systems of the house to address issues and prepare for an evolving world.

All of the projects in this category were designed with these values in mind, and through renovation we made the house as a whole both beautiful and endlessly functional and adaptable for its inhabitants.