McBride Residence, Tijeras New Mexico
Nestled in the Manzano Mountains the McBride residence is a biophilic designed home built with quality materials and engineered to exceed high performance standards. Guided by building science principles the house takes advantage of passive solar design, has a highly insulated envelope, and collects its own rainwater. The signature butterfly roof is a gesture to the sky like the palm of your hands collecting rainwater. A rainwater harvesting system has been designed to provide for all of the homes water needs.
With an ethos to seek a connection to nature and its high desert environment the house borders the national forest and opens to a mountain meadow to the south. Designed to resist wildfire the house will be built with Insultech CMU block, structurally insulated roofing panels and high performance Zola triple pane windows. The home is designed to connect outwards to the sweeping views and has been optimized to take advantage of low angle winter sun while providing shading in the summer months with good cross ventilation.
Taking inspiration from local rock outcroppings the textured CMU block walls wrap from outside to inside further blurring the separation between interior and exterior. Sliding glass doors open to a sheltered planted terrace that can be used throughout the year capitalizing on the beautiful NM climate.