Shotwell Design Lab | David Baker Architects

San Francisco CA | Completed

2014

Exterior street view of Shotwell Design Lab in San Francisco.

Exterior from across Shotwell Street. Sydney Harbor Bridge paint with micaceous oxide flakes sparkles subtly in sunlight or streetlight. A new custom gate onto the pedestrian passage replaces the standard garage roll-up door.

Shotwell Compound is a mixed-use urban contemporary approach to living and working. It combines the new Zero Cottage, a workshop, and an existing building that combines apartments with a gallery storefront.

Inside passage to Zero Cottage with a red, white and black mural on the right side of the wall.

The passage to Zero Cottage and Shotwell Design Lab was originally used to get horses to the rear yard stable. Now it features a 62 foot long mural painted by Mission Street Style artist Andrew Schoultz in 2009.

Image Credit

Matthew Millman

David Baker’s home and workspace, two levels share an austere-yet-quirky yard and freestanding woodshop. The modest living quarters flank a sun-filled multipurpose room that extends onto a glass deck. Downstairs houses a private apartment and art studio-gallery space that opens to the street.

At the top of the stairs is a large room with an asymmetrically sloped high ceiling. It’s a very flexible space with functional service areas—a kitchen, pantry, office, and library—located behind shoji screens fabricated from fiberglass, bamboo, and aluminum. Interior doors, shelves, and furniture are fabricated from plyboo, a plywood made from sustainable fast-growing bamboo.

The passage originally allowed horses to get the rear yard stable, mow it’s the entry to the Courtyard and Zero Cottage. The rear yard is landscaped with permeable surfaces as a rain garden. Storm water runoff from the roof is directed to rusting steel planters filled with bamboo and horsetail plants, where it is allowed to infiltrate the natural water table. The rear deck surface is textured glass, which allows maximum light to penetrate into this space with high concrete walls on two sides.

Sustainable Features

2.0K solar electric system generating over half of electrical power on site.
Solar domestic hot water collection system providing over half of water heating needs.
Digital dimming lighting controls on all lights to reduce consumption and extend bulb life.
Small-scale appliances: under-counter refrigerator, freezer, and dishwasher.
Passive solar design: high thermal mass, polished concrete floors, and south-facing clerestory warm the living areas.
Casework and wood doors made from rapidly renewable material: bamboo plywood.
Walls insulated with ground recycled denim batting.
Rain garden system diverts roof water runoff from city sewage system and into local aquifers.
Permeable infiltration garden and pavers in city public sidewalk intercept storm water runoff in public right of way.