ToToPort

22 Portola was a complete remodel and penthouse addition of a prewar townhouse overlooking the San Francisco’s Upper Market neighborhood. The central idea was to create a vertical gallery through the house that provides natural light and ventilation to the four levels of living space stacked on the hillside. Together, the stairway and solarium also double as a passive-solar heating and cooling system.
By incorporating materials that absorbed and held the suns radiant heat, the in-floor hydronic radiant heating system could be set at a lower operating temperature. By incorporating mechanically operated windows at the bottom and top, the stairwell acts as a 40' cooling tower allowing natural stack ventilation to moderate the temperature.