Holst Architecture has grown steadily over the past 24 years. In the time that senior associate Kevin Valk has been with the firm, for example, he’s watched it increase in size from four employees to 37.

The scope of the firm’s projects also has grown during that time. From luxury single-family residences to multifamily affordable housing to special projects for nonprofit organizations, Holst has proven to clients – and to the Portland building industry – its eagerness and ability to tackle new projects that go beyond the basics of form and function.

London-based Monocle Magazine, an international publication focused on global affairs, culture and design, featured Holst in the article “Who We’d Hire” several years ago. Last year, Monocle included the Portland firm in “The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes,” a 400-page, hardcover book featuring outstanding design firms from around the world. In addition to photos of Holst founders Jeffrey Stuhr and John Holmes, the book featured the firm’s work on the Belmont Street Lofts condo project in the Pearl District and the Karuna House in the Yamhill Valley. The latter is a single-family residence that carries the distinction of being the first residence in the world to meet three of the world’s most demanding energy efficiency certifications: Passive House PHIUS+, a LEED for Homes Platinum rating, and a coveted Swiss MINERGIE-P-ECO certification.

But Holst isn’t just about earning global recognition. One of the firm’s more recent projects, for example, is the Boys & Girls Club in East Portland.

“We do a lot of work for nonprofit organizations and budget-conscious projects like low-income housing,” Valk said, “but being budget conscious doesn’t mean we can’t have great design.  We’re just part of the equation. Factors like the public will, social context, client needs, community impact come into play.

“It’s about communication, an honest understanding and an open dialogue helps us solve those problems. Even when there is opposition, we want people to know they’re heard and treated with respect.”

Valk also cites the working environment at Holst as a key element of the firm’s success.

“We have a great staff. We try to create and maintain a collaborative environment that makes a quality design product and we show our staff they are appreciated and welcome their voice in our discussions. We value them and they feel that. I think it’s an important part of who we are and what we do.”

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The owners of Portland-based Holst Architecture were pretty pleased when the firm was featured in the “Who We’d Hire” section of London-based Monocle Magazine a couple of years ago. They’re even more pleased that Holst is featured in a coffee table book recently produced by Monocle: “The Monocle Guide to Cosy Homes.”

Monocle Magazine, according to its website, was launched in 2007 and publishes 10 times a year for an international audience of more than 80,000 readers with a focus on “global affairs, business, culture and design.”

The guide is a 400-page hardcover book that features firms from all over the world, Holst spokeswoman Xylia Buros said. Holst is featured on page 319 of the book in a full-page spread that features photos of founders Jeffrey Stuhr and John Holmes and mentions the firm’s work designing the Belmont Street Lofts, condos in the Pearl District and the Karuna House in the Yamhill Valley.

The Karuna House previously received attention in September when it received a first-place award for a single-family structure from the Passive House Institute US. Zack Semke, director of business development for builder Hammer & Hand, said the house is “the first project in the world to earn the triple crown of passive house,” which includes the PHIUS award, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating and Minergie-P certification – a Swiss rating for passive house construction. The home has also received awards and acclaim from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institute of Building Sciences,��Green Builder magazine and the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

Buros said that members of the Holst team are avid readers of Monocle and that the firm first garnered the magazine’s attention through articles by Zach Dundas of Portland Monthly magazine.

Being featured in the magazine led to inclusion in the book, she said.

“They called us an innovative U.S. firm with an understanding of aesthetic and social context,” Buros said. “Other firms (in the book) were from Spain, Australia, Singapore, Geneva, Stockholm, New Zealand, Thailand and Finland, with just two other U.S. designers included.”

The book is available at Amazon.com for about $40. Holst also has a copy of the book on display at its Southeast Eighth Avenue office. For more information on the book, visit .

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When Hammer & Hand President Sam Hagerman accepted an award for best passive home building practices from the Passive House Institute US last week, he did so on behalf of the entire project team.

The Karuna House in Newberg received first place for a single-family structure during a ceremony in Chicago. Hagerman accepted the award on behalf of Hammer & Hand, Holst Architecture, consultant Dylan Lamar and Earth Advantage.

Zack Semke, director of business development for Hammer & Hand, said the house has won other awards since its construction about a year and a half ago, and that it is the “first project in the world to earn the triple crown of passive house,” which includes the PHIUS award, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating and Minergie-P certification – a Swiss rating system for passive building. The home has also received awards and acclaim from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institute of Building Sciences, Green Builder magazine and the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter.

“This was a really fantastic project and we all learned a lot from it,” Semke said. “We tried to bring laser focus on actual performance combined with a broader view of sustainability but also address all other green concerns.”

Based on the Karuna House’s first year of operation, Semke said energy needs were driven to low levels from the combination of an advanced building structure and solar design.

The foundation of the house – concrete poured over a thick layer of expanded polystyrene – helps create better thermal performance, and the stud walls of certified wood were insulated with high-density cellulose made of recycled newspaper. Much of the rest of the home was built with engineered wood.

The Karuna House’s owner, Eric Lemelson, commissioned its construction, Semke said.

Semke said projects like this don’t come along often enough and that he would love to do another.

“Ultimately, certification is important; it requires you to meet the numbers,” he said. “But most important is that we’re building at that level.”

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A contractor and an architecture firm tied to Portland recently received national recognition for contributions to the Karuna House project in Newberg.

Hammer & Hand, which has offices in Portland and Seattle, and Portland-based Holst Architecture were on the Karuna House project team that earlier this month earned a Beyond Green Merit Award during Building Innovation 2015: the National Institute of Building Sciences annual conference and expo in Washington, D.C. The award, one of four given by the institute’s Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, recognized the home as a superior example of high-performance green building.

The $2.4 million Karuna House was completed in 2013, and has received several green building certifications, including Earth Advantage platinum, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum and Passive House. The Beyond Green awards jury praised the project team for providing valuable lessons to the industry by pursuing several green building certifications.

Portland-based Imagine Energy, a solar, heating and air conditioning company, was also recognized as a member of the Karuna House project team.

The Bullitt Center in Seattle received the top prize in the high-performance buildings competition. – Inka Bajandas

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Hammer & Hand was named Custom Builder of the Year by Earth Advantage on Tuesday in part for building the energy-efficient in the Yamhill Valley.

The announcement came as part of Earth Advantage’s annual , which honor Oregon and Southern Washington builders who meet the highest level of Earth Advantage green building standards.

Holst Architecture designed the Karuna House, which received several certifications, including Earth Advantage platinum, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum, Passive House, and Minergie-P-ECO – the most stringent level of a Swiss rating system that measures homes in terms of noise reductions and material life cycles.

Hammer & Hand, which has offices in Portland and Seattle, was one of several builders recognized Tuesday for building practices that best exemplify Earth Advantage standards. Other builders receiving Green Home Builder Awards were: Advantage Services Construction (New Earth Advantage Builder of the Year), Timberline Construction (Lowest Energy Performance Score of the Year), John Residential Group (Multifamily Builder of the Year), Noyes Development (Volume Builder of the Year), Willamette West Habitat for Humanity (Low Income Builder of the Year), Green Hammer (LEED for Homes Builder of the Year), and Marnella Homes (Hall of Fame Builder).

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and designed a house that will serve as a case study for sustainable design certifications.

The 4,000-square-foot , to be built in rural Yamhill County, is designed to be certified by three building rating systems: , a Swiss low-energy-consumption system; , a German energy efficiency system: and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design at a platinum level.

“The client threw the doors open and said, ‘I’m going to make this an academic exercise,’” said Corey Hawbecker, designer at Holst. “He said, ‘Not only will I get this home that I’ve wanted for awhile, but it’ll benefit the field by comparing and contrasting different rating systems.”

The house was designed to have features that tailor to each system, though they often overlap.

To meet the goals of Minergie-P-ECO – the highest certification of Minergie – and Passive House, the envelope of the house had to be designed airtight. Both systems stem from the concept that structures can be heated passively through solar gains in the winter rather than mechanical equipment. To make sure Karuna House will be passively heated, each of its windows was individually designed to optimize natural light and heat. The windows facing the south, for example, are much more transparent than windows facing the north.

However, Menergie-P-ECO and Passive House differ in that Passive House is based purely on energy criteria and, therefore, does not take into account building materials. Both Menergie-P-ECO and LEED at the platinum level require that certain materials be used for finishes, floors, glue and paint. Consequently, the house will use primarily renewable materials, such as wood.

The Menergie-P-ECO criteria also takes into account the noise level of a house – a condition not included in LEED ratings. The Karuna House will contain sound attenuators in its ventilation system and acoustic dampening material in its walls and floors to prevent transfer of noise from one room to another.

“Building this way is good for you from a long-term health perspective because your house is comfortable – not only temperature wise, but it’s quite and there are not a bunch of allergens in the house,” Hawbecker said.

Hawbecker said the LEED platinum rating will be the toughest of the three designations to obtain because the house’s rural location will not be near public transportation, which is part of the system’s criteria. He hopes the other sustainable design aspects of the house will make up for its rural location.

“It’s all sort of a point-based system, so you choose your priorities,” Hawbecker said. “You could use a stone floor everywhere, but you wouldn’t get a point, so you would have to make it up somewhere else.”

The house is currently in its early construction phases. When completed, it is expected to be the first Menergie-certified house in North America, Hawbecker said.

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The team managing an ambitious green building project in Yamhill County is navigating three demanding certification systems, and finding overlaps and conflicts among them that it contends will benefit the rest of the building community.

The Karuna House is designed to meet standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes platinum, and , a rating for a Swiss certification system. While the three standards share many similar aims, the combination is requiring some creative and complex building solutions.

“It’s been challenging,” said Cory Hawbecker, project manager for . “There’s a lot of alignment between them, but each has its own emphasis, so it’s taken a lot of work to make sure we have all of our bases covered.”

While Passive House focuses almost exclusively on extreme energy efficiency, LEED addresses design and materials. Meanwhile, the Minergie system is new to the project team – the Karuna House could in fact be one of the first buildings in the U.S. to earn the certification.

“Where LEED falls short, Minergie picks up the slack, and Passive House has no requirements for material use – you can things that are awful for the environment as long as you meet the energy standards,” Hawbecker said. “Holistically, (the Karuna House) will perform to the highest level in all of the different categories.”

The Minergie system offers a basic level of certification, but the Karuna House is shooting for Minergie-P-ECO, its most stringent standard. The “P” signifies very low energy consumption and the “ECO” means the project will meet extra ecological requirements, including noise protection for occupant comfort and life-cycle analyses on building materials.

The client, who requested to remain anonymous, first read about the Minergie system in an MIT publication, according to Hawbecker. The Minergie standard is not available in North America yet, so the client wanted to help introduce it with this project – near a Yamhill County vineyard.

After engaging in an “eco-charette” with the designers and builders from Hammer and Hand, the team decided to move forward not only with the Minergie standard, but also LEED and Passive House.

“At the time it struck me that there would be a very narrow path to follow,” said Sam Hagerman, president and co-owner of . “And there are existing disagreements between the standards.”

For example, the Passive House model requires a ventilation system that conflicts with the one cited by LEED.

The Karuna House design also conflicted with a building code requirement for radon-resistant systems. To meet the code, the team would have had to punch several holes in the building envelope, and undermine the extreme air tightness Passive House requires. However, the project team successfully proved that the design accounted for potential radon exposure through alternative measures.

Several common construction products and building materials were untenable because of the suite of certifications. Minergie-P-ECO prohibits site-applied foam because it can expose the installer to harmful chemicals.

“We don’t like to use it anyway, but being able to apply spots of spray foam on-site can be a good Band-Aid when no other product will work,” said Dylan Lamar of , the Passive House energy consultant for the project.

The team is relying on precise carpentry to reduce the need for any gap-filling product, but it has switched to an expanding foam tape to meet the guidelines.

Three certifications come with a high price tag. The client declined to divulge the project’s total budget; however, third-party consultants were hired for each certification, and such measures can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The Minergie system was the most expensive to incorporate, in large part because it is new to the U.S. The standard was translated into English, engineers in Europe were hired to help with the specifications and, according to Hawbecker, the only qualified Minergie energy consultant in the U.S. is based in Minneapolis, Minn.

Because of unique project technicalities, Hagerman hopes to cycle different Hammer and Hand workers onto the site every few weeks. The project, for instance, includes a wind turbine, which is expected to provide more energy than the house will consume.

“There’s so much building science and detailing up there that it’s good for everyone to get exposed to it,” Hagerman said. “And we hope the impact of the job is shared not just in the local community, but in the high performance, low-energy building community nationally and internationally through the web.”

Hammer and Hand plans to post weekly updates on with technical videos and project updates.

In addition to green elements, the client also wanted an attractive home with specific features, including a deck on the roof.

“Usually these buildings with high technical standards have a way of looking like they’re designed by technicians,” Lamar said. “But this is a demonstration of how you can achieve high aesthetic standards and still have a very high-performing building.”

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