Tradewinds show home in Baldwin Park deviates from traditional Florida design and highlights contemporary architecture complemented with energy-saving technology.

This February, hundreds of builders and construction industry experts made the trek from the Orange County Convention Center to trendy Baldwin Park to get a glimpse of Tradewinds, a livable work of art that combines style, energy efficiency and green building concepts. Tradewinds was completed late last year as Builder magazine’s show home for the 2008 International Builders’ Show. The annual IBS show homes are designed to inspire builders to incorporate state-of-the-art building practices into their own projects.

At first glance, this 7,316-square-foot house (listed at $5.24 million, including furnishings) with its H-shaped floor plan and large overhangs may seem better suited for Oak Park, Illinois, where the clean lines and thoughtful geometry of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright are showcased, than for Orlando, where Mediterranean-style architecture reigns supreme.

But the sponsors knew what they were doing when they deviated from the traditional Florida show home formula and opted instead for a design to support the concept that a contemporary look can be warm and inviting. To accomplish this mission they chose Celebration-based architect Geoffrey Mouen, who has expertise in neoclassical architecture as well as experience creating the 2005 IBS show home.

Mouen notes that Wright’s style influenced components of the home’s contemporary design, but he prefers to classify the architecture as Anglo-Caribbean. While conceptualizing Tradewinds, Mouen took into account the surrounding neighborhood and the eclectic architectural flavor of Orlando itself. “We wanted something unique, but also a design that would complement Baldwin Park’s style,” he says.

Builder magazine tapped Charles Clayton Construction, long established as one of Central Florida’s premier luxury homebuilders, to head the construction of Tradewinds. Clayton is known for building custom homes in classic Mediterranean and European styles, but the company’s president, Charles Clayton III, and its CEO, Paul Pistulka, were immediately intrigued by Mouen’s contemporary design.
“ We like to be challenged and step out of the box,” says Clayton, who was also faced with the challenge of completing the project in less than a year—an unheard-of feat for a project of this magnitude and scope.

The Tradewinds team was complemented with the talents of interior designers Dave Brown and Kim Deddens of Brown and Deddens Design Studio and Dave Wilson of Advanced Audio Design, who handled the integration of the home’s sophisticated technological features.

THINKING GREEN
With the growing consensus for energy efficiency and building green newly driving the construction industry, the Tradewinds team was charged with creating a home that would have a minimal impact on the environment. Every feature found in Tradewinds serves as an example of the many options available for energy efficiency, building “green and clean,” and using natural resources to achieve a home that is beautiful in design and function.“ Taking into consideration global climate change, we identified issues to respond to, not only for today but in the future,” says Mouen.

The first step was the selection of the site for the home. Mouen conducted wind studies and analyzed the path of the sun to determine the optimal placement of the home. Tradewinds was positioned with a southern exposure to take advantage of natural light throughout the day as well as capture the cooling breezes coming from adjacent Lake Susannah.

Design components further enhanced the home’s overall energy efficiency. A standing-seam metal roof reflects heat from the attic, large overhangs shield against other weather elements, and an open floor plan promotes cross-ventilation.“ Between bouncing the sun off of the roof and the Icynene [foam] insulation system, we have super energy efficiency,” says Clayton. “The passive ventilation allows the homeowner to turn off the [air conditioning] eight months of the year during Florida’s temperate weather season.”

Placement of high clerestory Energy Star-rated windows allows ventilation of rising hot air, and high-efficiency heating and cooling equipment integrate with a network of sealed, insulated ducts to decrease thermal transfer.

All of the home’s appliances are Energy Star rated, and a tankless water-heating system produces hot water on demand, which decreases the energy used to maintain a full tank of hot water.
Striving for green certification by the Florida Green Building Coalition, the Tradewinds team opted for as many environmentally friendly products as practical. All of the carpet is made of recycled materials under Shaw Industries’ Green Edge program. Shaw’s Epic Hardwood flooring, found throughout the house, is made of recycled wood. This flooring uses nearly 50 percent less newly forested wood in its production than conventional options. And low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint adorns the walls.

“ We wanted to demonstrate that there are green alternatives available that are also attractive,” says Clayton.

Additional articles along with the remainder of this excerpt can be found in the current issue of Orlando Magazine.