Currently under construction, the 3,500 square foot Montagnaro House (Mountain Man in Italian) has what people in the real estate business call a “million dollar view”. Prominently perched near the top of a west-facing slope in the Upper Hudson Valley, this house enjoys panoramic views of spectacular sunsets over the Northern Catskill Mountains.

The designers and architects for the home, the New York City based firm Mapos LLC, were challenged by the client to create a virtually maintenance-free, year-round home utilizing the ultimate in green building methodologies, while taking full advantage of the site’s strongest asset, the incredible view to the west. The additional design challenge of a limited footprint due to budget, and unique program requirements like flexible studio space for the artist wife and a below grade vintner’s cellar for her husband, a native of Italy and amateur winemaker, presented additional challenges to the designers. The result will be a custom home that is at once luxurious, but can also exist comfortably off the grid.

The designers devised a hybrid structural system of concrete, steel, and Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), each strategically utilized to create a lightweight, rigid, and highly energy efficient shell. The structure is clad entirely in maintenance-free fiber cement panels, galvanized steel, and super low-E insulated glass to withstand the harsh seasons on the exposed slope, while the interior emphasizes a careful economy of materials which respond to the client’s preference for exposed materials and careful use of color. The interior palette includes buffed concrete countertops and floors with radiant heat, precast concrete tiles, no and low VOC paints and clear-coat finishes, locally reclaimed timbers, exposed Parallam beams and TJI structure, high efficiency lighting systems, Energy Star appliances, and water-sense fixtures.

The design utilizes operable windows, Mechoshade systems, deep overhangs, high ceilings, and light colors to maximize natural passive cooling, while geothermal heating and cooling with radiant in-floor heating guarantee year round comfort on even the harshest days. The house will also be pre-wired to accommodate the next generation of PV technology anticipated to hit the market before the end of construction. The long sloping roof culminates in a rainwater reclamation cistern for irrigating the client’s extensive organic vegetable garden.

The inclusive and collaborative design process inherent in all Mapos projects made American Green Home Builders a natural fit to come on board early in this project. Their participation and expertise in green construction, along with the highly involved client, has helped create a design which wraps luxury and green design into a stunningly modern package.