A Sunlight home is a wonderfully comfortable, thoughtfully designed, energy efficient or zero energy custom home that is attractive and inviting both inside and out. Sunlight homes are designed in direct response to your personal design needs, aesthetic tastes, climate, topography and building budget. Timeless design elements including open living spaces designed to the human scale, passive solar natural day lighting, vaulted ceilings, positive outdoor spaces and logical, space efficient, functional design are part of every Sunlight home.
We have specialized in designing custom, energy efficient, passive solar, structural insulated panel (SIP) homes across the country since 1975. Our homes are built with quality components to be durable and rely as little as possible, if at all, on external energy sources. Sunlight homes are designed to be forward thinking, wonderfully comfortable, lasting, and enjoyed for generations to come.
High tech, soft touch
We use cutting-edge technology in our design process and material selections, while maintaining a deep respect for the design elements that make a home feel good. Inspired by the design philosophies of residential architect Christopher Alexander, author of the seminal book A Pattern Language, and in keeping with the concepts popularized by Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House series, we have mastered the art of designing healthy, green, passive solar homes that are attractive, inviting, and extremely comfortable.
Using the sophisticated architectural software, ArchiCad, our clients enjoy seeing computer generated floor plans, elevations, and 3-D models of their new passive solar, structural insulated panel home as their design progresses. Contractors appreciate our detailed, engineered plans and panel drawings because they are clear, accurate and comprehensive. Sunlight Homes involvement does not stop at the design however. In order to ensure the highest level of consistency and quality control, Sunlight Homes are supplied as a Component Package. Our Component Package is a combination of services and materials that include our complete design, energy analysis and engineering services, as well as the high tech building materials that make up the exterior shell of the home. These materials include super insulating, prefabricated, structural insulated panels (SIP) manufactured by The Murus Company and high performance, triple pane, metal clad wood windows and exterior doors from Pella. Our homes are extremely well insulated, strong and tight, in keeping with building science’s best practices, yet they are cozy, with sunny window seats, cheery kitchens and porches, with an easy flow from inside to out. Most of our client relationships are long distance, but after we all meet at the building site and kick off the design process, modern communications make working with our clients and their contractors easier than ever.
Style, SIPs + Sustainability
Sunlight homes can be designed in almost any architectural style, from ranch to territorial, contemporary to farmhouse, or to blend with the homes in your area. The SIP building system increases design options, allowing for lofts, vaulted ceilings and interesting window groupings. SIPs are custom fabricated and arrive on site ready to be assembled. This means less time and waste on the job site while ensuring a more consistent, high quality finished product. We have specialized in SIP design (and construction when built locally in Albuquerque, New Mexico) since 1975 and have learned to make the most of the design and construction advantages that SIPs afford. Our passive solar design principals have evolved over the years in order to create highly energy efficient homes with wonderful natural lighting that don’t suffer from the problems that plagued early passive solar home designs. Unlike solar homes of the 1970s, modern day Sunlight homes blend in effortlessly with their architectural surroundings and are attractive and unassuming. Our passive solar design principals come from personal experience, from listening to past clients as they live in their Sunlight homes and from our ongoing research into sustainable home design, building materials and methods. Our passive and active solar design principals combined with our use of A Pattern Language and The Not So Big House design philosophies create home designs that are timeless, exceptionally energy efficient and very comfortable.
Choosing What’s Right For You
Designing and building a custom home is an exciting and rewarding experience. There is nothing quite like the process of turning your ideas into something tangible and being part of the creative process from start to finish. Along the way there are a great many decisions to be made. These decisions will slowly shape this dream of yours into a reality. Being clear about your priorities and values from the beginning and choosing to work with professionals who understand and share your vision will make the process easier and result in a home that fits you perfectly.
Sunlight Homes is a family owned design firm and we specialize in designing green, custom homes that we believe in. We have assembled a team of like-minded specialists, systems, and building products for our Component Package that address the technical aspects of home building that result in an extremely high performing house. At the same time, you have the freedom you need to pursue your vision and the professional support to make your dream a reality.
Every client comes to us with their unique set of needs, wants, values, and priorities. We work hard to make every Sunlight home as sustainable and green as possible while helping our clients achieve their individual goals.