Su Casa Southwestern homes

When Bob and Pamela Mang were considering buying and remodeling a Santa Fe home, they admit they might have balked if they’d known they would be replacing the roof and the plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. But the home had a half-acre lot with a lovely birch and two fir trees that were probably planted when the home was built 74 years ago: the deal “was clinched in an instant” when they walked into the sunroom, saw the trees, and envisioned a permaculture orchard and garden replacing the lawn.

The Mangs’ challenge was to create a sense of structural coherency while finding their home’s authentic identity. Moreover, significant energy loss and poor air quality, affected by a leaking roof, posed additional practical problems. Along with tastefully and efficiently integrating their home’s successive former remodels, the couple insisted that both design and construction would reduce the ecological impact of their home’s renovation. As current and former principals for Regenesis Group, an interdisciplinary green design and development firm, theMangs wanted the project to align with their philosophy of sustainable permaculture and environmentally sound design. Their goal was to “bring forth the innate grace and intelligence of the original adobe and rationalize the additions made over the years into a workable, beautiful living space,” Pamela explains. “In this throwaway society, we need to learn to love and regenerate what has come before so that the spirit of our places can continue to shine.”

For its ecological approach to design and construction and its use of environmentally sound materials, they chose Palo Santo Designs LLC as their general contractor. OwnerMark Giorgetti clearly shares theMangs’ green philosophy. “Construction is one of the main environmental impacts on the earth,” he says. “To ameliorate this impact, all of our projects are green in one aspect or another.”