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Spanning 25 years in the work of Jim Olson of Olson Sundberg Architects, these houses illustrate the evolution of a sustainable design sensibility rooted in the 1960s.

The relationship of architecture to the land – and to the water and the sun and the wind – has been a constant concern in the work of Jim Olson of the Seattle firm, Olson Sundberg Architects. Olson grew up in the powerful landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where environmental awareness is less a response to crisis than a matter of respect for forces of nature larger than ourselves and our buildings. “Our culture is at a turning point as we begin to shift our roles from consumers of limited resources to stewards of the planet,” the architect says, in explaining the credo that guides his firm’s efforts at sustainable design.

Shown here are three houses that punctuate Olson’s career: one a quarter-century old, from his architectural beginnings, one recently completed, and a third that is about to be built. They are interesting both for their commonalities and their differences; seen together, they illustrate the evolution of sensible strategies of energy conservation and sensitive responses to the landscape.

One thing the houses have in common is relevance to the theory of refuge and prospect, developed by the British geographer Jay Appleton, which analyzes the innate affinity humans have for particular physical settings. As summarized by architectural historian Grant Hildebrand, the theory holds that from the earliest time humans have needed “a place of secure hiding, closed to weather and to attack from predators, a relatively dark place from which, looking out, we are not seen”. This is the refuge. At the same time, “we must have a place of hunting and foraging, a place of open views over long distances in bright light to illuminate and cast shadows”. This Appleton named the prospect.