Leonardo da Vinci said that simplicity was the ultimate sophistication. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow believed that in all things, the supreme excellence was simplicity. And Henry David Thoreau, in fittingly simple terms, said “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” Great thinkers and doers of the past have consistently pointed to simplicity as a main pillar for all things great.
In today’s world, however, simplicity seems to have taken a back seat to complexity. Just look at home theater systems; you have to turn on three different things with three different remotes and flip through 300 channels just to find out there is nothing on that you want to watch. It is the ubiquitous burden of complexity that makes the work of GO Logic, a Maine-based designer and builder of prefabs, Passivhaus, and prefab Passivhaus so compelling.
As Treehugger.com reports, GO Logic homes are functional and elegant, but never sacrifice their simplicity. Take the Cousins River Residence, the latest home from GO Logic. It is a 1,600-square foot prefab house that has been built from a modified stock plan and designed to Passivhaus standards. The house incorporates a super-insulated foundation, wall, and roof systems, high-performance triple-pane German windows with 50 percent solar heat gain, a heat recovery ventilation system with 88 percent efficiency, and an airtight building shell with 0.5 air changes per hour.
The house was also designed with aging-in-place features and an approach that fosters fluidity between spaces so anyone who lives there can feel comfortable and safe, regardless of age, income, or level of physical mobility.
While the Cousins River Residence is functional and high performance, it also embraces a contemporary aesthetic that gets the simplicity seal of approval. The house (as well as GO Logic’s other designs) is a perfect example that a Passivhaus may be built using data and spreadsheets, but that doesn’t mean the house needs to be overly complicated or forget about the elements of design and beauty.
