by Riley Shiraishi

Monday, October 17, 2011

RS: 1. How long have you been working in your trade?

JVP: I studied architecture for 6 years before graduating. I have been working in architecture for about 20 years.

RS: 2. What do you enjoy about your job?

JVP: I enjoy taking many requirements and integrating them into a beautiful solution.

RS: 3. What is difficult about your job?

JVP: Funding for architecture is often difficult. Unlike being an artist that just has to please herself, I have to please the owner, the occupant, the building department, the code, the planning department, and hopefully the neighborhood.

RS: 4. How have rules regarding eco-friendly standards changed over the years?

JVP: Building codes are written to a lowest common dominator. To build well any structure the architect must design beyond to code. These days many people use an additional method of checking for environmental design, such as LEED developed by the US Green Building Council.

RS: 5. Do you think it has become easier or harder to incorporate environmentally friendly elements into the home? Why or why not?

JVP: I think it is much easier now that the industry has finally jumped on the green ethos and many people are improving the knowledge base and selling green products.

RS: 6. Do you think that homeowners should incorporate eco-friendly elements into their home?

JVP: I think it would be foolish to not use all available knowledge to make better functioning higher quality home.

RS: 7. If so, what is one realistic change people can make?

JVP: Many features can be added to a new home during design at no extra cost. For existing buildings Solar Thermal panels or Photovoltaic panels are an easy addition to use free energy from the sun.

RS: 8. How do you feel you are making a difference in your community?

JVP: I am here to make the community better through healthy, beautiful buildings with the maximum positive environmental impact, and minimum negative impact.

RS: 9. In what specific ways would the world be a better place if more people would choose to “go green”?

JVP: Buildings us about 55% of all energy, and use large amounts of resources to be built. The trend for the future is for buildings to have enough power generation through the use of green tech like photo voltaic to be “power positive”, or feeding more energy back into the grid than they need. The more solar power generation capacity we have the less CO2 we will have emitted through fossil fuels. By using long lasting materials we reduce overall cost. By using quickly renewed materials like bamboo we reduce deforestation and allow more CO2 to be pulled out of the atmosphere.

RS: 10. What final words of advice would you leave with homeowners everywhere?

JVP: Today we have made many advances in building technology. Our environment is changing, but so is our knowledge. It makes both fiscal and environmental sense to design and build using what we now know, and not building the way our parents did.

Materials: Sisal Rope, Living Apple Tree In Situ

Completed July 24, 2011

Artist’s Statement:
This sculpture installation at the artist’s parent’s farm is a statement about the dualistic nature of protection. Frequently in life when we seek protection in order to obtain protection we take on some kind of bondage, encumbrance, or disassociation from the outside. Protection insulates us from the outside world, and yet limits our ability to feel or the grow. In life we must balance our level of protection to ensure we do not die, while also not debilitating our ability to grow or to feel.

The apple tree was under attack by an active kitten, and was at risk of dying due to bark loss. It has been bound in rope to shield it from sharp claws, but this bondage may impact the tree’s growth. The rope is a symbol of the dialectic between all the different pieces that make up life on earth, as different codings of DNA dance around each other and jockey for position.

Detail Front:

Detail Back/Side:

Detail Back:

Detail Edge:

Front View:

Full Tree:

Human Scale:

For Sale, $200.00

For Sale, $350.00

20″ x 16″
oil on canvas
©2010
by Jessë Valentine Portz
American, born 1973

Spacecraft LLC’s most notable built work can be seen in Hāʻula on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Jessë Valentine was the sole architect of record and designer of a comfortable contemporary tropical home with fabulous views, indoor-outdoor living and natural ventilation. Construction was completed in 2009.

With more than 15 years experience in the field of architecture, Jessë Valentine has worked as a design project architect, project manager, and construction manager. In 2002, she gained her architecture license in the state of California and has been a licensed architect in the state of Hawaiʻi since 2005. She holds a bachelor’s of architecture from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

In San Francisco, Jessë Valentine worked as junior designer with the Mark Horton Architecture and Studios Architecture firms, staff architect with Fee Munsen Ebert and project manager with Architecture and Planning. Projects included a data center in Santa Clara, retail including Sephora shops, The Sharper Image, and many large and small-scale commercial offices and residential homes. In Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Jessë Valentine has gained experience as a project architect and architectural designer working with Franklin Wong Associates and Peter Vincent Architects private consulting firms. Work at Franklin Wong Associates focused on school renovations for clients Kamehameha Schools, and the State of Hawaiʻi. At Peter Vincent Architects, Jessë Valentine specialized in the design of custom luxury homes in Kāhala, Kailua, and Hawaiʻi Kai on the island of Oʻahu.

In spacecrafting, we seek to design habitations that go beyond the typical requirements people associate with buildings. In seeking to design spacecraft, we design a dwelling or space habitation, that is a complete system. Rather than create a building that occupies land, we create a building that is symbiotic with the landscape around it.

If one first brings to mind a spacecraft, most would think of a vessel to travel through outer space. In order to allow the inhabitants to survive the round trip through outer space, an entire system of biological functions must be included in the workings of the spacecraft. The traditional method designing and building is to provide shelter and commodity for its occupants. While this is a necessary function, it does not analyze the complete biological systems required for survival.

The spacecraft that leaves this Earth tries to re-create the tiny piece of the Earth’s atmosphere and environment. To create a spacecraft for the earth, one follows much the same principles. One must allow for all the biological functions of the inhabitants, and one must also provide for natural biological systems that are displaced by the spacecraft. The spacecraft dwelling then becomes a symbiotic piece of the environment it occupies. Rather than just providing for an immediate commodious environment for its inhabitants, it improves the environment for the entire environmental biome it occupies. A spacecraft does not just occupy space but serves as a machine to restore the landscape.

Some benefits:
• providing habitat for flora and fauna.
• Purification of water through natural systems.
• Purification of air by increasing biological plant carrying capacity per acre to reduce CO2.
• Providing carbon neutral power with built-in power generation systems.
• Eliminating building related illnesses.
• Providing high-quality lighting with no cost overhead.
• Including built-in food production small-scale farming.
• Providing many views and much light to improve psychological well-being.

The client’s program was for a 2500 square foot four bedroom three bath two-storey home to replace the previous house destroyed by fire. Client wanted to maximize garden space and potential for mountain and ocean views. Second floor Great Room offers both ocean and mountain views. Owner’s office faces the south Ko`olau loa mountains. A vine arbor on the garden side of the kitchen and dining nook provides a private outdoor living space, while a street side lanai gives a public lanai. Three second floor balconies allow a private outdoor area for the second floor great room, guest bedroom and master bedroom suite. Prevailing trade winds on a modified saltbox roof-line echo the mountains beyond while managing the breeze flow in a contemporary take on the classic craftsman bungalow. When combined with: heat reflective foil, a vented airspace, and R-38 insulation, window cross-ventilation eliminates the need for air conditioning.

• Floor Plans

• Concept Photomontage of Main Facade

• Concept Photomontage of Corner Facade

• Constructed Home: North-East Ocean Facing Facade

• North-West Facade Facing Corner

• Primary Street Frontage

• Facade Facing Back Yard

• Side Street Facade and Back Yard