A Sculptural Insulating Concrete Form Home
Contributed by Jeanne Fields, Residential Concrete, Sr. Editor

Excerpt from Residential Concrete, July/ August 2006 . . . Wendi Luhlmann’s story

Photo by Bill Palmer, Editor, Residential Concrete

The vision behind the house Pam Wake and I built originated several places. The style came from how adobe homes made us “feel.” The natural adobe colors were “homey” and comfortable…like an extension of the earth; a place we would want to spend time. So we decided to build a traditional Sante Fe pueblo adobe-style home. Another force behind the design derived from Native American culture.

After high school, I entered the University of Minnesota’s architecture program but left to play professional tennis. Afterwards I returned to Minnesota becoming a journeyman union carpenter and eventually a formwork carpenter on commercial construction projects. Later I entered the University of Colorado, Sculpture Program, at Boulder. I became captivated by Native American culture. I learned that the traditional Native American languages had no word for art because their clothes, dishes, homes, and everything they created had a creative and healing element. I always believed in functional art—art as a way of being. My goal was to create spaces that had that “being:” sculptural, functional, green, artistic, soothing, and healing. Pam and I decided to build a “sculpture” to live in with no distinction between where the building stops and the art begins.

A major decision was the building material. We wanted to build the house ourselves and as mold is very toxic to me, this house needed to be healthy. With research, I realized that Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) were a natural fit, and I now feel that ICFs are the best choice for mold preventative construction.

I showed our house design and my mold prevention strategies to George Graham, Ph.D. a mold expert. He and Don Dennis, M.D., at Johns Hopkins, produce all-natural, mold bio-balancing protocols. I found Walter and Sandy Hayhurst, the owners of CDH EnviroServe in Denver. My diligent mold preventive designs, combined with the natural mold bio-balancing products and knowledge of CDH EnviroServe led to wellness for our new home. Pam and I are proud to be a crew of two women who built their own home. I look forward to sharing these design ideas with others —more sculptural homes with healthy space.

Details — Bill Palmer, Editor Residential Concrete Magazine

Luhmann and Wake developed many details to achieve their vision. To create curved ICF walls, they vertically cut out the interior face shell of the ICFs between the webs and notched the inside of the exterior face to allow the bend in the shape. Several of the ceiling joists are lodgepole pine log beams. To frame these into the ICF walls, Luhmann embedded angle iron into the concrete below the beam pocket. She then fastened the log to the angle iron with a 12-inch lag bolt.

The roofing used structural insulated panels (SIPs). “SIPS are affordable and extremely energy efficient, so in combination with the ICFs they maintain the high R value. There is no attic space to vent, and no ridge vents, says Luhlmann, a perfect roof!”

Furthering mold prevention, the basement is a 5-inch-thick decorative concrete floor supported on corrugated metal deck. A foot below the metal deck is a layer of gravel topped by polypropylene sheeting; the gravel bed below the plastic is tied into a 2 cubic feet per minute exhaust fan to remove radon and keep moisture levels low. “There’s nothing down there for the mold to eat, says Luhlmann.” [ return to top ]