Sidwell House

On October 18, 1980 Malcolm Wells, architect and leading promoter of earth-sheltered buildings, visited Raven Rocks. Rich and Mary Sidwell asked for time with him to consult about their dreams of building an earth-sheltered, energy-efficient house on a site near the 1880s-era farmhouse they were living in at that time. That visit led to seven years of planning and correspondence with “Mac” Wells before actually breaking ground in the spring of 1987. Sidwells had several priorities in mind for their home: building techniques that would last, perhaps for centuries; energy efficiency; a “living” roof offering silence, permanence, protection from weather, rainwater conservation, and lower heating and cooling bills.

The basic construction crew consisted of Rich and Mary, their neighbor John Rockwell (who quit his job as a mechanical engineer to work on their project at a much-reduced income), Anna Suter who spent months living with Sidwells, growing a garden, and working on the house. Other neighbors and friends pitched in when a larger crew was needed: Brian Lake (camped here with his wife and young child for a summer); Herb Smith worked with us the last couple of years before completion; the Locust Hill project crew (Warren Stetzel, Tim Starbuck, Don Hartley, and Chris Joyner) and others gave us a hand at just the right moments. The basic house was finished in four years of good construction weather, with the work interrupted by Christmas tree planting, pruning, harvest and sales, as well as helping to run a mix-on-site concrete delivery business. (Rich drove truck and Mary dispatched for Raven Rocks Concrete for almost 25 years.) Rich and Mary moved into the house in October of 1991.

Work on the west entry and courtyard, on moving earth onto the roof, on the garage and deck, and on interior details continued in the years that followed. Almost all were completed by 2014. To say Sidwells are delighted with their home is an understatement. The move from the old farmhouse to their earth-sheltered house felt like skipping a century. Hundreds of visitors have toured, from grade school classes to architecture students, local folks simply curious about the unusual building to visitors from around the world who sought out a Malcolm Wells designed building. Environmental science classes from nearby Olney Friends School come for an annual look at a passive solar, earth-sheltered house. Through cold Ohio winters and hot, humid summers, the Sidwell House performs remarkably well at very low cost.

The structure is a two story, poured-in-place concrete shell, with pre-cast concrete planking for the main floor and the roof. Surrounding the concrete is a heavy layer of dense foam insulation, seven inches thick on the walls, two inches under the floor, and six inches on the roof under two feet of earth. The foam insulation is covered with stucco. To take advantage of the site, provide light, and utilize passive solar gain in the winter, all exterior windows are triple glazed. The attached solar greenhouse is double glazed. Winter heating is supplied by the greenhouse, with a woodstove in the lower level providing sufficient backup heat to keep the enclosed thermal mass evenly comfortable. Solid insulated panels at the peak of the greenhouse roof prevent solar gain in the summer. In 2011 eleven solar photovoltaic panels were installed on the roof to provide about fifty percent of the house’s annual electricity use. In 2014 an additional 8 panels were added via a ground mounted array bringing the total system size to 4.8 KW. Thus on annual basis we can usually generate as much as we use.