The Vital Signs Project: The Gund-Ream Ranch Case Study

Conclusions and Summary

"A Thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends to do otherwise." Aldo Leopold

The Gund-Ream Ranch House

In conclusion, we learned many interesting things about heating and cooling, earth-sheltering, effects of extreme environmental conditions, and natural daylighting. One of the main problems of the Gund-Ream Ranch House seemed to be the skylight. It does not seem to work well with the severe weather conditions of the site, as the recent history demonstrates a significant repair factor. Furthermore, a "chimney effect" was created by inserting the skylight on the top of the earth-sheltering scheme which then nulified some of the thermal advantages of the earth-sheltering, mainly causing the heat loss demonstrated in our investigation. But, it does work well as an annual source of natural daylight for the central area of the main room and as an outlet for stack ventilation in the summer. Unfortunately the local site conditions don't require such a design element. By utilizing earth-sheltering, unique design considerations especially in the area of drainage become very important. Another repair on the residence was the drain spouts along the eaves of the building. The original design didn't wick the water away from the wood thus, causing wood rot and the need for the newly inserted metal drip spouts.

The natural daylighting strategies throughout the residence are quite impressive. We found that the glazing along the southeastern exposure was appropriate and functioned well. The potential of clerestory windows or "little big windows" have been realized throughout the interior of the residence. And the skylight, even with its downfalls, did work well as a source of natural daylight.

The local site conditions do require protection from heavy rains, wind, and extreme temperatures, of which, the addition of earth-sheltering does provide. The earth is used as a barrier reducing heating and cooling needs. It suprises many people to discover that solar heating and underground architecture go so well together. What could be more logical than letting the sun and the earth work together. Sometimes it is simply hard to believe that so many good things could happen when we pull a blanket of living earth up over our north shoulder and welcome the sun at our south side.

Comments to author: mose9231@uidaho.edu, wong9195@uidaho.edu