Episode 7: CarbonShack Design: The Pure Magic of Chloroplasts
As state and local regulations have changed to make it easier to build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) their use and purpose has evolved. Where once ADUs were conceived as opportunities to create extra living space or convenient rental income — they are now been seen as a personal showcase, a statement of who you are. An ADU can be a canvas for expressing your unique taste and lifestyle choices. Whether you favor a minimalist aesthetic or a more eclectic style, your ADU can reflect your design preferences in a way that complements your main living space, yet stands on its own. Thoughtfully chosen furniture, curated art, and personalized decor can transform this compact dwelling into a true reflection of your identity.
As an emerging building type, the ADU is also a powerful platform for demonstrating a commitment to sustainable living. By integrating eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient technologies, you can turn your ADU into a model of sustainability. From solar panels on the roof to sustainable hemp fabrics for upholstery and window treatments, every detail can contribute to a reduced environmental footprint. The beauty of an ADU lies in its small scale, making it the perfect project to experiment with eco-friendly innovations and sustainable practices without overwhelming costs or complexities.
Moreover, the ADU gives you the opportunity to inspire others through your design choices. Whether it’s through the use of reclaimed wood, wellness-focused furnishings, or walls that fully open to bring nature indoors, your ADU can serve as a living example of how thoughtful design can enhance both aesthetics and well-being. As more people seek to live sustainably and intentionally, your ADU can be more than just an extra space—it can be a statement piece that inspires others to rethink their own living environments.
CarbonShack’s nature-inspired home furnishings are sustainably designed and fabricated in the Los Angeles area. Our furniture, lighting, fabric and glazed ceramic tile take their cues from the many wonders of the natural world, from chlorophyll cell structures to intricate microscopic spores, from sea kelp to mycelium. We source urban forestry lumber, natural hemp fabrics, salvaged wood, and California clay. Our designs not only bring biophilic motifs into the home, they also imbue your interiors with a tactile sense of wellness and connection to nature.
The Mt. Washington Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) is contemporary and luxurious, while remaining at the same time sensitive both to the historic architectural fabric of its setting, as well as to its environmental impact. Our belief is that no structure, no furnishing, can be created without understanding the impact of its design on both the experience of the user, and its impact on the natural world. The process of design must be holistic. We are thoughtful about every step - from the building’s foundation to the furniture’s fabric, integrating functionality and beauty with the goal of bringing the natural world into the home.
Adding an ADU (essentially an additional home) to any property zoned for a single-family dwelling necessitates sensitivity to issues of privacy. and density. Integrating this new structure, even if intended as a home office, means grappling with the challenge of balancing a sense of separation within an integrated whole. This property, bounded at both top upper and lower ends by street frontage, lent itself perfectly to the creation of an ADU, since the upper street allows for a separate private entrance. The yard between the two units is steeply sloped, so creating terraces landscaped with fruit trees provides a leafy privacy screen, and privacy, between the upper and lower houses.
One of the defining architectural features of this historic neighborhood is the use of river rocks from the nearby arroyo. River rocks are found throughout the area in landscape walls, property walls, foundations, porches, and fireplaces. To tie the new unit’s design both to the historic fabric of the community as well as to the front house, the ADU sits atop two newly constructed arroyo stone-clad walls, set in a descending arc at the lot’s upper extreme. These foundational architectural elements emerge from the hillside, as if remnants, provocative ruins, from a long-neglected historic structure. Positioned on top of and between these stone walls, contemporary wood-clad boxes contain a bedroom, bath, kitchen, indoor and outdoor living spaces. By linking the building’s materiality to the adjacent community, the ADU fits seamlessly within the historicity of the neighborhood and its natural features, while at the same time making a thoroughly contemporary statement.
This well-insulated solar-powered ADU/all-electric house is the embodiment of a low carbon footprint. Since it is partially built into the hillside, the building takes advantage of the cooling effects of Mother Earth. Further, being situated under a historic 100-year-old Live Oak tree, heat gain is naturally reduced through the cooling effects of the spreading leaf canopy. Highly efficient electric heat pumps heat and cool the interior and provide hot water, and combined with LED lighting throughout, bring energy consumption down even more. Moreover, an induction cooktop and electric ovens in the kitchen eliminate the need for fossil fuel consumption. Thoughtfully and strategically reducing the overall energy needs allows for fewer solar panels to be deployed, which truncates the time-frame for both the ROI on the solar panel system, as well as true energy independence.
Our design/build firm consists of both designers and craftspeople, which enables us to seamlessly transform design concepts into reality. We guide our clients to help visualize their dreams, but we also widen the conversation by highlighting possibilities that may otherwise not have been considered – such as wellness, sustainability, environmental stewardship, and biophilia. We believe that true design is not just a concept, but a collaborative process that leads to a tangible reality - which is why what we design, we build.
Climate skepticism has been decreasing over the past five years. Now we must address the second roadblock in our path to decarbonization, solution skepticism. Technological advancements have led to large levels of growth in efficiency and have brought costs down significantly, making our keystone solutions like green buildings viable. However, cynicism on both sides of the aisle prevails.