Erik Tsurumaki

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  • Erik Tsurumaki

Architects

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Stayner Architects

Services:
  • New Building
  • Remodel
Residential Building Type:
  • Single-family home
  • Multi-family residential
  • ADU
Project size:
  • 2000 sq ft or Less
  • 2001 sq ft to 5000 sq ft
  • 5001 sq ft or More

Sustainability Expertise & Credentials

Sustainability Expertise: Yes
Sustainability Expertise & Credentials:

Stayner Architects has completed projects for environmentally-minded clients at a range of challenging sites. At Deep Springs College, we designed a Boarding House that thrives in a demanding climate at the outskirts of Death Valley National Park near Big Pine, California. At this remote site, designing an efficient facility to lower energy use was critical to the self-sustainability of the College's off-grid infrastructure. For a multi-modal transit hub in the Eastern Sierra's, we implemented passive heating and cooling, optimized solar energy production, and reduced electricity usage. To foster the transportation facility's connection to the site, we worked with a landscape architect to develop fire-resistant planting design, support the capture and reuse of water, and create a garden of native plants. We approach sustainability through a multifaceted lens that considers not just reduction in carbon footprint, but a wide consideration of social and ecological impacts.

Fire Resiliency Experience: Yes
Fire Resiliency Experience Details:

Stayner Architects is currently working on the design for a new residential estate project in Pacific Palisades utilizing a variety of strategies for improved fire resilience, including a mass timber structure which provides inherent resistance to fire damage. A stone rainscreen wraps around the exterior walls and roof, providing a protective outer shell for the mass timber interior, which shelters a small courtyard garden at its center. In response to wildfire threats, large openings framing views of the site can be closed down through various pivoting architectural metalwork shutters and awnings. Beyond the building, our in-house landscape design team used fire-resistant strategies, including careful plant selection, defensible spaces, and footpaths serving as fuel breaks. We have developed a methodology to apply these principles to a variety of site-specific conditions, which can be complemented through the installation of additional mechanical and sprinkler systems.

Stayner Architects uses conversation as the basis for shaping the built environment. Our projects are the result of an open-ended process of listening to and engaging with clients, stakeholders, the history of existing structures, those who labor to make buildings, and the natural and urban environments in which architecture is both situated and actively transforms. Read more...