How mass timber, steel, and SIPs let us adapt to your vision, not the other way around.
Blend's Building System Makes Your Dream Home a Reality
How mass timber, steel, and SIPs let us adapt to your vision, not the other way around.
A systemized design process, built to flex
Every Blend home starts with you. Your vision and desired home.
From there, Blend deploys a systemized design process: a defined kit of parts, mass timber glulams, steel connectors, and structural insulated panels for the walls and roof, with site specific engineering unique to every project.
Spacing, width, height, roofline, add ons, extensions, single level or multiple levels, even how separate living spaces come together on one site. None of it is locked in.
What is the Blend System?
The structure of a Blend home comes down to three things working together. Mass timber glulams carry the frame and structural integrity, and they are joined with steel connectors, which tie the frame together. This structural load pathway is coupled with an envelope of fire-resilient Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs).
Each one has a standard approach and room to move. Glulam spacing on a given model can be adjusted. Our standard is 8ft, but that's a starting point. Steel connectors are concealed by default, but clients can have exposed connectors for more of an industrial look. The SIP envelope stays the same system whether the footprint is a simple rectangle or something more complex.
Two structural systems: Craft and Lite
Every Blend home is built in one of two structural systems.
Craft is our traditional approach: mass timber glulams throughout, exposed or concealed, carrying the frame from end to end. Lite drops the mass timber and holds its structural integrity through the SIPs alone.
Both are full Blend homes. The choice comes down to look, budget, and site, not a tier of quality.
Roofline and the shoreline
Our standard roofline when we first started building was a gable peak, but we've expanded our capability to allow for either a shed single slope or a gabled peak.
The decision often depends on the site. Gable or shed changes how a home reads against its surroundings and how it handles weather and view lines, but it doesn't touch the structural approach underneath. Even as the roof selection changes, the underlying mass timber, panel system, and connections stay the same.
What's underneath
Foundation is one of the most regularly discussed design considerations. When Blend first started, our homes were built on slab-on-grade with a concrete finish. That's expanded over the years to include crawlspace and full basement, which open up utility housing, reconfiguration, and better moisture and humidity control.
Engineering and foundation costs shift with each option, which is part of why foundation type gets settled early. It's another axis of customization that gets shaped by the land itself, not a default we apply across every build.
Project SSB: two living spaces, one home
Project SSB on Salt Spring Island is a fully customized Blend home. Two connected volumes joined by a breezeway give the client two distinct living spaces under one roofline, and the home mixes both structural systems. One side is built in Craft, the other in Lite.
The second volume also carries a slight kink, a small bend in the footprint that moves it off the standard straight line. Glulam spacing on the Craft side stayed the same as our standard approach throughout, proof that significant layout changes, and even mixing structural systems on one site, don't require reinventing the approach underneath them.
This home has a shed roof, with a single slope rising towards the ocean view. It's also been customized with a 6ft overhang, creating a protected outdoor patio space for years to come.
The System at a Glance
Structural system | Craft (mass timber glulams throughout) or Lite (no mass timber, SIPs carry the structure) |
Glulam spacing | Standard 8ft spacing, adjustable around your layout (Craft builds) |
Steel connectors | Concealed by default, can be exposed |
Roofline | Gable or shed, including shed roof overhangs |
Width, height & levels | Home width, single or multiple levels, add ons, extensions, and connecting multiple living spaces on one site |
Foundation | Slab-on-grade, full basement, or crawlspace. Engineering and cost vary by site |
Windows | Floor to ceiling, full glaze, horizontal and vertical orientations, and skylights |
Blend's Approach
Our systemized design process is a starting point, not a constraint. Craft or Lite, glulam layout, steel connections, roofline, width, levels, foundation and window configuration all get matched to the site and the client, not pulled from a fixed catalog.
With our system, custom home building and the architectural design process are simplified. Our beautiful mass timber components and simple system are fully customizable, allowing creativity and unique vision to come to life.
