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“3 living buildings made by a living practice” is best understood as a portrait of Miller Hull’s design philosophy, not a list of three certified Living Buildings. The September 18, 2024 Building Design + Construction essay presents the Hansen Residence, an addition to the University of Michigan’s Art & Architecture Building, and a proposed Downtown Seattle public-space intervention as three moments in an evolving practice.
Together, the examples answer a practical question: how can architecture respond to climate, ecology, social life and public space at the same time? Their value is in the design moves they illustrate—passive solar orientation, adjustable solar control, seasonal connection to outdoors and a less automobile-dominated public realm. The source gives no comparable energy, carbon, cost or post-occupancy results, so these projects should be read as design case studies and stated ambitions rather than a ranked performance test.
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What does “living practice” mean in Miller Hull’s account?
Miller Hull uses “Living Practice” to describe the culture and methods it believes make high-performance architecture possible. The firm connects ecological performance with artistic quality, resilience, social equity and advocacy, rather than treating sustainability as a checklist added after a building has been designed.
In the essay, the firm writes that “The Living Buildings we create are made possible by the Living Practice we nurture.” That is a statement of intent from the firm, not an independent assessment. It describes a practice in which environmental response, public value and architectural expression are developed together.
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The framing also explains why the essay moves between a private house, a university addition and an urban-space proposal. They are different building types and different stages of realization, but each is used to show how a design response can begin with the conditions of a place and expand into questions of community and civic life.
Miller Hull reported that it was responsible for six Living Building Challenge-certified buildings as of September 18, 2024. That is a dated, self-reported portfolio count from the essay; it should not be treated as a current 2026 total or as a certification count independently verified for this article.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchAre these three projects certified Living Buildings?
No. The three numbered examples are not three certified Living Buildings. The Hansen Residence and the University of Michigan addition are built projects described through particular design strategies, while “The Right Way—Taking back Seattle’s Right of Ways” is a proposal for Downtown Seattle.
Keeping that distinction matters. “Living Building” is a specific certification term, whereas “living practice” is Miller Hull’s broader description of how it works and what it hopes architecture can accomplish. The essay uses earlier and proposed work to explain that wider trajectory.
| Project | Primary design response described | Relationship to climate or public realm | Status in the essay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hansen Residence, rural Washington State | Movable garage doors, passive solar orientation and earth sheltering | Seasonal solar gain, shade and use of the ground’s stable temperature | Built residence |
| University of Michigan Art & Architecture Building addition | Movable south-facing shading and sliding doors to exterior space | Adjustable solar control and seasonal indoor–outdoor teaching space | Built institutional addition |
| “The Right Way—Taking back Seattle’s Right of Ways” | Tree-lined pedestrian corridors in place of many automobile-first streets and sidewalks | Urban public realm, walkability and a greener street network | Proposal, not a completed building |
How does the Hansen Residence use passive response to its site?
The Hansen Residence, in rural Washington State, is presented as a largely passive-solar project. Its central idea is not a piece of equipment but a set of architectural adjustments that change with the season.
According to Miller Hull’s description, movable garage doors admit winter sun so the house can operate like a heat-capturing solar greenhouse. In summer, the same doors can be positioned to create a shaded outdoor porch. The components therefore do more than open and close a garage: they act as a seasonal environmental control layer and alter how residents occupy the edge of the house.
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The essay also describes an earth-sheltered concept. By using the ground around the residence, the design takes advantage of what the firm calls a stable ground temperature of 55 degrees. The stated logic is that this thermal stability can reduce heating and cooling loads. The 55-degree figure and the performance explanation belong to the article’s account; no measured energy savings or monitored indoor-temperature data are supplied.
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This is an important construction lesson. Passive design is not synonymous with a single product or a universal detail. It depends on orientation, openings, shading, thermal mass, earth contact, occupant behavior and local climate working as a system. A movable façade element can have different consequences from a fixed overhang, and an earth-sheltered solution carries structural, drainage, waterproofing and moisture-management requirements that must be resolved in the project’s own conditions.
Miller Hull says the Hansen Residence received national design awards and was widely published, helping establish the firm’s role in the early passive-solar movement. The passage does not name those awards, so they should not be presented as a complete or independently checked record of the project’s performance.
What makes the University of Michigan addition adaptable?
The University of Michigan example shifts the focus from a rural house to an institutional building that must support teaching, critique and public identity. The addition connects to an existing two-story building and was intended to become a new front door for the architecture and planning departments.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsMiller Hull describes a south-facing façade equipped with movable shading devices. Those elements can be adjusted to optimize or limit solar gain, allowing the façade to respond rather than remain fixed under changing sun conditions. The essay does not provide operating data, energy figures or a post-occupancy study, so the claim here is about the design strategy and its intended flexibility.
Sliding doors connect critique galleries to outdoor space during fair-weather days in spring and fall. That detail is both environmental and educational: it extends review and discussion areas beyond the enclosed room and lets a seasonal climate condition become part of the department’s daily life.
The dean and faculty sought a visible sustainability statement, according to the essay. The addition therefore had to communicate as well as perform. Its south façade, shading devices and outdoor connections make environmental response legible to students and visitors, while the “front door” role gives the sustainability ambition an institutional address.
For construction teams, the example highlights the coordination required when adaptability is part of the brief. Movable shading needs durable hardware, safe operation, maintenance access and a control strategy that occupants can understand. Large sliding openings require careful attention to thresholds, weather protection, security, acoustics and accessibility. The source does not claim that every challenge was solved in a particular way; it shows why these issues belong in early design coordination rather than being left to a late equipment schedule.
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Why is the Downtown Seattle project different from the other two?
“The Right Way—Taking back Seattle’s Right of Ways” is an urban-design proposal, not a completed building. Miller Hull imagines tree-lined pedestrian corridors replacing many streets and sidewalks organized primarily around automobiles.
The proposal broadens the meaning of sustainability beyond a building envelope. A street network determines who can move comfortably, where trees and planting can grow, how public life gathers and which modes of travel receive the most space. In the firm’s concept, reclaiming right-of-way becomes a way to make a greener urban model visible and usable.
Because it is a proposal, readers should not describe it as an implemented Seattle transformation or attach completed-project outcomes to it. The essay supplies a vision of public space, not construction dates, cost data, traffic measurements or post-occupancy evidence.
The contrast with the Hansen Residence is useful. The residence works with solar exposure and ground temperature at the scale of a single site; the Seattle concept works with movement, planting and civic space at the scale of a city. Both start by asking what the existing conditions make possible, but the relevant conditions are different.
How does Miller Hull say its design process works?
The firm describes projects beginning with conceptual investigations of program and site conditions. Teams look for obvious and less obvious “truths” that can generate a clear design concept. In practice, that might mean reading solar exposure and topography at a house, understanding departmental circulation in a university addition or examining how a street allocates space among cars, pedestrians and planting.
Miller Hull says teams work collaboratively in a studio setting with diagrams, hand-drawn sketches, physical models and computer-generated visualizations. Climate data and sociocultural research inform the concepts and continue through later design phases. This account presents research as an ongoing design input, not a one-time feasibility check.
The essay characterizes the process as fluid rather than linear. It quotes Professor Brian Carter’s description of the firm’s “comings and goings”: designers move between investigation, representation, testing of ideas and refinement instead of following a single irreversible sequence. That description is Miller Hull’s account of its own practice, not an independently audited process standard.
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For a project team, the practical implication is to keep environmental and social questions active after the first concept. A shading idea may change when daylight studies, façade detailing or maintenance requirements are explored. A public-space plan may change when access, safety, planting care or local use patterns are understood more fully. The process remains iterative because the information changes the design.
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What do these examples say about sustainability in architecture?
The essay’s literal question is, “What is the meaning of sustainability in architecture?” Its answer is not a single definition or a performance table. Instead, the three examples suggest several connected principles.
- Start with place. The Hansen Residence responds to sun, shade and ground conditions. The university addition responds to a south-facing façade, an existing building and the seasonal use of outdoor space. The Seattle proposal responds to the allocation of urban right-of-way.
- Make performance adaptable. Movable garage doors and adjustable shading devices allow buildings to respond to changing conditions. Adaptability can also mean creating more than one way to use a space, as the university galleries do when they open outdoors.
- Connect environmental goals to daily life. A porch, a critique gallery and a pedestrian corridor are not abstract carbon diagrams. They are places people occupy, navigate and value.
- Treat social and ecological questions together. Miller Hull frames its design question as a response that is “ecologically holistic, socially just, and zero-carbon.” The examples show the direction of that ambition, but the article does not provide enough data to verify zero-carbon operation or social outcomes for each project.
- Use architecture as advocacy. The university addition is described as a visible sustainability statement, while the Seattle proposal argues for a different public-space priority. In both cases, design communicates a position as well as sheltering or organizing activity.
What evidence is—and is not—available for these projects?
The source is a firm-authored perspective essay republished by Building Design + Construction. It is valuable for understanding Miller Hull’s stated intentions, examples and process, but it is not a comparative evaluation by an independent assessor.
The article does not provide comparable energy-use intensity, embodied-carbon totals, construction costs, payback periods, occupant surveys or post-occupancy measurements. It also does not establish a current certification count beyond the firm’s statement that it was responsible for six Living Building Challenge-certified buildings as of September 18, 2024.
That evidence boundary should shape how the projects are discussed. It is accurate to say that the Hansen Residence uses the passive strategies Miller Hull describes, that the university addition incorporates movable shading and seasonal outdoor connections, and that the Seattle scheme proposes pedestrian corridors. It is not accurate to infer a numerical ranking, claim verified zero-carbon operation or present the Seattle concept as built.
How can a construction or design team apply the lessons?
These examples are most useful when translated into questions for a project’s own site and users.
- Map the forces before selecting systems. Record solar paths, prevailing weather, topography, existing structures, movement patterns and community use. The first decision should be what the site is already offering or resisting.
- Design seasonal modes deliberately. Ask how openings, shading, thermal mass, planting and circulation should work in winter, summer and shoulder seasons. A component that changes position must have a clear purpose in each mode.
- Coordinate adaptable elements early. Resolve structure, waterproofing, controls, safety, maintenance and accessibility while the concept is still flexible. Adaptability that cannot be operated or maintained will not deliver its intended value.
- Define the social outcome. Decide whether the project is meant to create a porch, a shared learning space, a new civic entrance or a safer pedestrian route. Environmental measures become more durable when occupants can see and use the benefit.
- Set up measurement separately from aspiration. If a project claims lower loads, improved comfort or reduced carbon, establish what will be measured, by whom and over what period. The Miller Hull essay does not supply those measurements for these three examples.
Where does the “living practice” idea lead?
Miller Hull’s three examples move from the scale of a house, to an institutional threshold, to the city street. Their common thread is an attempt to make architecture responsive: to sun and ground, to seasons and learning, or to the way public space is shared.
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The strongest takeaway is therefore methodological rather than numerical. A living practice begins by reading conditions carefully, keeps climate and sociocultural research in the design process, and treats environmental performance as inseparable from use and expression. The projects illustrate that ambition, while the available source leaves questions about measured outcomes for future documentation.
The firm’s perspectives archive and news archive provide the broader context for its continuing discussion of Living Practice. The later archive listing includes an April 2025 perspective titled “A Living Practice: Architecture in Harmony with Nature,” but that listing does not independently update the 2024 six-building count.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are the Hansen Residence and University of Michigan addition Living Building Challenge-certified?
The essay does not identify either project as one of the firm’s certified Living Buildings. It presents them as examples of design strategies within a wider practice, while the six-building certification figure is a separate, dated statement from Miller Hull.
Is the Downtown Seattle “Right of Ways” scheme under construction?
No. The essay describes it as a proposal for tree-lined pedestrian corridors and a greener street model. It should not be described as a completed building, an implemented city program or a project with measured outcomes.
What does the 55-degree ground temperature mean in the Hansen Residence description?
It is the stable ground-temperature figure Miller Hull uses to explain the earth-sheltered concept. The article does not present it as a monitored energy result or as a value that can be transferred unchanged to every site.
Where can I read Miller Hull’s other perspectives on Living Practice?
Miller Hull maintains a perspectives archive and a broader news archive. Those pages provide the firm’s own later commentary, but individual listings should still be checked for their date, project status and whether they update any portfolio figures.
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