On Union Street in Belfast, a concrete-and-pine structure looms above the more traditional homes around it kind of like a spaceship from the future that accidentally landed in this quiet New England neighborhood. The house, built in 2009 by husband-and-wife architects Ian and Zofia Weiss, caused a lot of chatter around Belfast. What on earth was being constructed on Union Street?
“We heard a lot of things,” Ian said. “The outside doesn’t betray the inside.”
But when the house — which doubles as the office for their new design firm, Locative Design Research Development — was finished and neighbors were invited for an open house, confusion turned to appreciation.
“People have been really supportive,” Ian said.
There is something special about the house, which thrifty Mainers can appreciate, in addition to its light-filled and spacious interior. The Weisses have designed and built their home to be warm in the winter without the use of fossil fuels. It’s heated primarily with sun-warmed water gathered with a rooftop array of solar tubes, and it is superinsulated, the walls packed with blown-in fiberglass insulation that is a foot thick.
Although there is a small Franklin wood stove on the ground floor and a similarly small electric heater, for nine months out of the year their heating source will be the sun. And since the couple moved into the home last January — with now-19-month-old daughter, Eva, in tow — they immediately put their theories to the test.
The verdict? Even in midwinter, although the house was unfinished and dusty, it was warm.
“When we moved in, if the sun was shining, we had absolutely all the heat we needed,” Ian said.
The Weisses met a few years ago at an architecture lecture at Columbia University. Zofia, 29, originally from Poland (the country) and Ian, 30, who’s from Arrowsic, had lived in all kinds of New York City apartments, including a 450-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn Heights.
After deciding to move to Maine — because they didn’t want to raise a family in New York City — they chose Belfast after spending just two hours in town.
“We love Belfast,” Zofia said.
Their next decision was whether to renovate an older home or to build a new one.
“Belfast has amazing housing stock with beautiful, beautiful houses,” Ian Weiss said. “But a cold, drafty house from the 1850s is not for everyone.”
It wasn’t for the Weisses, who settled on Union Street because they think that density and town living is “as good as it gets,” Ian said.
The couple began designing their Union Street home, with Ian focusing on the technical details and Zofia on the design.
“I would love getting lost in the technical details,” he said. “Zofia would just obsess, obsess about the space planning. That’s why it turned out so well.”
Some of the characteristics of the house were informed by their time in the small Brooklyn apartment, they said. At 2,400 square feet with two-story-high ceilings and many windows with wide sills, the wide-open living area on the first floor gives the impression of utter spaciousness.
“It makes you want to breathe,” Zofia said. “It expands your vision.”
The office aerie upstairs is separated from the main part of the house by a metal bridge, but still allows those working a visual connection with what was happening below.
“How do you separate the home office enough, how do you include it enough?” Ian mused.
Zofia said that they emphasized the fact that it was a family home in the design.
“We wanted spaces where people can be together,” she said.
From their office, with its ever-changing view of Belfast Bay in the distance, the couple plans to bring their attention to smart design that’s aesthetically pleasing as well as energy-efficient to their clientele.
“We always aspire to be more hands-on than just architects sitting at the office,” Ian said.
The couple named their design firm, Locative DRD, after a Polish grammatical case indicating place, because the firm is specializing in modern, energy-efficient buildings for “Maine’s climate and context,” according to their website.
During the building, they intentionally incorporated as many construction materials from local sources as possible.
“The first place to look is stuff you can get nearby,” Ian said.
Pine boards came from Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, and inside the home they reused a lot of the rafters and doors from the garage that had been on the site.
But despite searching, they weren’t able to find evacuated solar tubes for the roof anywhere else but China.
“It concerned us a lot, but we were sort of proud of China for the first time, for sinking money into solar,” Ian said.
ReVision Energy of Liberty helped the couple install the 120 tubes on the roof, which was the only mechanical contractor they hired. Otherwise, they worked full time to help build the house, which let them keep their costs down to about $170 per square foot, they said.
If they had outsourced all the labor, that would have risen to about $215 per square foot.
“Some of the technology was very new and some of it was very old,” Ian said.
They proudly show off some of the technical features that have been incorporated into the design — such as the concrete floors throughout.
“For a house that’s going to be energy-efficient, you need some kind of thermal mass,” Ian said. “Concrete carries heat.”
It’s also half the price of wooden floors, and radiant tubing laid in the concrete carries the solar hot water heat to the different rooms.
The house is just about airtight and features an air exchange system that heats fresh air brought from the outside. Although it’s not quite built to passive-house standards, the two, who are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified, are OK with that.
“The spirit of Belfast is that you draw a sketch on a piece of paper, get permission and go build your house,” Ian said. “If it’s as warm as you say it will be, that’s proof positive.”
Other aspects that make the home seem supremely livable are both high- and low-tech, such as the handy indoor clothesline that hangs in the laundry alcove and was imported from Poland, and the induction cooktop, which can heat water much faster than in a microwave, yet the burners remain cool to the touch.
While the design is modern, its also comfortable, with lush, green plants and art from family members livening the white walls.
“If you paint all the walls white, and wood is wood color and steel is steel color, then your stuff is what gives it life,” Ian said.
Some modernist homes they see in magazines seem cold and museumlike, they said.
“You bring your favorite pot, and it just doesn’t belong there,” Zofia said.
Their goal was just the opposite.
“We hope that no one ever asks, ‘But how do they live in it?’” Ian said. “It should be obvious.”
For more information, visit the website www.locativedrd.com.