The Harrisons opened up the back wall of the living room and created a small slate patio area where they can sit and take in the view of the stream and rainforest. Here, the couple enjoys the backyard with Kika the cat.

The sitting room in John and Anne Harrison’s Nuuanu home is more than a little magical. Nestled in the hills and situated away from the road, the place is truly a haven. Cool, fresh air fills the room while bright, large windows  treat the eye to lush plant life just outside. Close your eyes, and the large, open area’s best feature becomes truly evident. It’s the sound of a natural rushing waterfall just outside the home’s back door­­­. And it fills every nook, cranny and corner of the expansive space. Add that to the soft, natural light that pours through the windows and you have a veritable outdoor paradise that just happens to be indoors.

But it wasn’t always that way. While the rainforest-like surroundings were already there when the Harrisons bought the home in 2000, the home’s structure left much to be desired. Outdated and worn out, the roof especially was in need of repair. With all the dry rot and termite damage and aging wood, it was in bad shape, to the point that it was visibly sagging over the bedroom wing.

The original floor in the main room was carpeted. As part of their remodel, the Harrisons chose spotted gum, a super-hardy wood that is commonly available in the Pacific. Ceiling fans in all the rooms help cool the home when trade winds drop.  Kuhio the cat appreciates the comfortable setting, too.

The home was in need of such repair that one contractor recommended tearing the whole house down and starting over again. But the Harrisons felt they had something special that they wanted to preserve.

“One of the considerations we had when doing the remodel was that this home was a work of art—a product of Hawaii’s most famous architect,” says John, referring to the home’s original designer, Vladimir Ossipoff. “But there were things that had to be fixed, otherwise the house was going to fall down.” So the couple went ahead with the remodel with artistic preservation in mind. “We wanted to fix what was wrong but do so in a way that was architecturally sound and would achieve Ossipoff’s goals,” says John.

The Harrisons wanted to preserve more than just the architectural integrity of the home. They wanted to create a home that had less impact on the environment. John’s career was always deep into environmental concerns. For 20 years, he was affiliated with the University of Hawaii Environmental Center.

A lifelong steward of environmental science, John was familiar with alternative energy sources. But he knew of few places where such technology could be found in action in a residential setting. So he set out to create his own model. Finding an architect willing to work around the original architect’s plans and one who would tackle the extra concerns associated with sustainable design was something of a challenge. But eventually they found Paul Noborikawa, a principal at ADI Design Group.

Noborikawa was intrigued by the Harrisons’ ideas and they quickly forged a close partnership. For a year, they worked on their vision before construction started in 2005. They chose contractor Greg Thielen of Complete Construction Services to do the job.

Because they were already addressing the main roof’s structural problems, they decided to tackle some other major renovations as well. The first idea for the addition was to open up the living room, which Anne describes as “dark and cavelike.” They also wanted to do something with the lanai that extended off the living room. It was a bare concrete area covered with a battered corrugated iron roof and, after living in the home for a few years, they knew the space was quite unusable thanks to its dank feel and the prevailing mosquitoes.

The solution? Create a new main roof to run perpendicular to the existing house, creating a T shape, and raise the entire roof to encompass the old lanai. There’s no architectural term for the roof they created, Noborikawa says, but it makes the home. At the far end of the living room, the old roofline can still be seen nested within the new one, creating a fascinating juxtaposition of geometric lines and shapes. Before, the house had been impervious to the outdoors. Now, the large expanses of glass in the addition let the sunlight and the rainforest in on all sides.

 

TRUE NORTH The inlaid wood compass design found on the main living room floor reflects John’s passion for sailing. An avid wind-catcher, he has completed the Transpacific yacht race twice. The compass points to true north, so there’s never any doubt as to which direction visitors are facing when standing inside the home.

The Harrisons also converted an old laundry room and Japanese furo into a guest studio with its own private entrance, bathroom and refrigerator. Anne remarks that she needs a reservation book for all of the guests who like to come to stay these days.

With the nine-month renovation complete, there’s plenty to talk about with visitors. The home is beautiful, with its spotted gum floors and lava rock accents. And if you stand in the middle of the living room and look straight up, you’ll find yourself in a true valley—with views of the Koolau encompassing the home, visible from the windows above. But it’s possible the real highlight comes when John takes guests on a tour of the home’s environmental features.
He starts in the garage. “There’s the power plant,” he says, pointing at the layer of sleek panels atop the carport and the silently flickering boxes on the back wall. Thirty-two photovoltaic panels capture the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity for the home. Even in the often-cloudy back of Nuuanu valley, the panels create more energy than the Harrisons use, and the excess goes onto the main grid.

But it is not the photovoltaic panels alone that make the home the green machine that it is. Rather, the arrays are part of an integrated system of energy-saving features that started with big construction decisions and work all the way through to the energy efficient appliances and the careful placement of task lighting.

CATCH THE SUN  Quick facts about this solar-powered home 1. There’s energy to spare. The 32 photovoltaic panels that sit atop the Harrisons’ garage provide all the power they need to run their home with lots of left over energy to share. The excess energy produced goes on to the main grid. “The neighborhood—the community around us—can use the energy we make,” says John. “There’s a kind of sharing that goes on.”   2. They make the most of the sun. In order to maximize the amount of light that hits the panels each day, the Harrisons flipped the slope of the carport roof to create a southern exposure. 3. The house can run on batteries. Once solar energy is captured, it is converted into power that goes right to the home’s main system. “If I were to flip the switch off and we were cut off from the main grid, the house would run on the batteries in the garage,” says John. The batteries also continue to power the home even when the sun stops shining.

For instance, the home was remodeled to keep out the heat and maximize cooling air flow. Much of the heat in a house comes from the sun beating down on the roof, so the Harrisons paid close attention to the roofing insulation. Sheets of TechShield provide a radiant barrier that bounces heat away from the roof. They also create an airspace above the sub-roof and the ridge vents that dissipates heat. Three solar fans also create an exhaust draft from the living and attic spaces. To boot, the grounds have been landscaped to blend harmoniously with the rainforest in which the home sits. The Harrisons have added hapuu, ti, ferns and other plants that create a peaceful aura–but, not surprisingly, they also contribute to the green mantra. “Every leafy thing is like a miniature air conditioner,” John says, explaining how they placed floor-level windows in the main living room to pull in the air that has been cooled by the plants outside.

Meanwhile, the solar panels on the garage roof provide hot water while natural gas powers the stove and dryer. When the technology improves, John has the home ready to convert to a biogas generator that would create methane out of anything from wet garbage to newspapers.

When people visit the home, one of the first things visitors ask is how much the photovoltaic arrays cost. John is honest. His power plant didn’t come cheap.

“It’s equivalent to a low- or mid-range Mercedes,” he likes to tell them. “But we get way better mileage.”

The payback on such a system with energy cost savings is in the range of 15 to 20 years, but the Harrisons look at it a little differently. “This [house] could essentially point in a direction where I feel lots of people really want to go. It’s my sense as an environmental educator, someone who develops ways to leave a less imposing footprint on the planet, that this is a good opportunity to show how it can be done.”