Boston-based RODE Architects wins award for sustainable West Roxbury builds
RODE Architects, a Boston-based architecture and design firm, won Metropolis’ 2024 Planet Positive Award for its first-of-their-kind single-family homes in the city.
Located in West Roxbury, the Brucewood Homes are the first internationally certified Passive House builds in Boston and earned the firm the award given to projects that “represent excellence in sustainable, healthy, just design at every scale in the built environment,” according to Metropolis’ website.
“To have a local project win an international award is pretty significant, especially because that’s really what we do,” said Mike
DelleFave, studio director and architect at RODE Architects. “Our work is very much about building where we live, being the kind of company that understands what it means to build in our local community.”
RODE Architects’ project was among about a dozen to win Planet Positive Awards across several categories, all lauded for designs that take into account sustainability.
The concept for Brucewood Homes emerged from the firm’s longstanding relationship with client Dmitry Baskin, CEO of Passive House Construction and the project’s developer, who sought to build something that would set him apart in the market. Kevin Deabler, principal and co-founder of RODE Architects, suggested the idea of tackling high-functioning builds that are more energy-efficient than traditional homes.
“This project represents our dedication to building sustainably,” Deabler said in a statement. “We believed that high-performance, healthy, and comfortable homes like Brucewood are in demand, and this was proven true through the experience of our client and these homeowners. It’s an honor to be recognized by Metropolis alongside all of this year’s worthy award winners.”
The three West Roxbury houses in the Brucewood Homes project are sustainable and high-performing buildings. PHOtO: Robert Umenhofer
The team’s first step was to study the site and the “fabric of the neighborhood,” DelleFave said. RODE Architects examined the facades of the surrounding houses, taking note of the gable roofs, street-facing garages, and front porches. The firm used different iterations of these elements in the design of the Brucewood Homes.
“Although we’re contemporary architects, we wanted to make sure that the homes that were going to get built felt in a way familiar and contextual in West Roxbury,”
DelleFave said.
Construction on the Brucewood Homes was completed in 2022, and the houses have been occupied for over a year.
Beyond their sleek wood and metal aesthetics, the houses boast several features that make them more sustainable than conventional builds, including air tightness, which ensures that any heating and cooling in the home doesn’t leak out, and higher levels of insulation. Other design features, like the triple-pane windows, energy distribution systems, and solar arrays, also allow the houses to operate sustainably and effectively.
The three homes in West Roxbury are performing at an “extraordinary level right now,” DelleFave said. The energy-efficient nature of the homes is financially beneficial to owners because the homes are “essentially net zero or even net positive, which is amazing for the utility bills.”
More importantly, he added, the houses are temperature stable, have high air quality, and receive better sunlight than is standard, all of which have the potential to improve the wellness of their inhabitants.
“Those health benefits are really one of the biggest reasons why building sustainable should continue,” DelleFave said. “We absolutely think that this has got some momentum. Now we’re starting to see the deployment of Passive House in other developments.”
In Boston, a city at the forefront of combatting climate change effects, approximately 71% of emissions are caused by buildings. Across the globe, buildings and construction projects account for 21% of greenhouse gas emissions and 37% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a 2023 report from the United Nations Environment Programme.
In 2019, under Mayor Marty Walsh, Boston set a goal to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As part of the effort, the city began to transition to net-zero construction of its municipal buildings and said it would adopt a similar model for affordable housing. It also sought to implement stricter green building zoning requirements to ensure that new buildings are constructed with environmental impact in mind.
RODE Architects’ award-winning project was made using the industrial by-product recycled poly-ash, locally sourced white cedar, and reclaimed wood. As for its impact on the surrounding space, the project preserved trees in the area and maintained the tree canopy.
While Brucewood Homes is a unique addition to RODE Architects’ portfolio — which comprises projects such as Dorchester Brewing Company, Bar Volpe, and Cambria Hotel Boston — DelleFave said the firm has always been concerned with ecologically responsible development.
“Not only have we been interested in sustainability from a technical or an energy standpoint, but we’ve also been very interested in creating sustainable communities,” he said. “So the idea of sustainability goes beyond what I think a lot of people think that it is. For us, it’s about, yes, the energy, but it’s also about creating a sustainable way of life or a sustainable environment for everybody to live in.”
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