Practicing ArchitectureAwards

2010 AIA Housing Award Recipient

Category 1: One and Two-Family Custom Residences

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Notes of Interest

The project expands an 1100 square foot 1939 Cape Cod with a small addition. The pattern-book original design meant that the house was designed independently of solar orientation and views. A new garage had been added in 2004, but the original five-room house was unchanged. The clients desired a more functional modern house with better connections to the riverfront site. It also needed to meet their budgetary needs, significantly reduce current energy consumption and provide opportunities for future alternative energy integration.

The new addition was designed to reorient the house towards the south to capture winter sun and summer breezes, while creating a new courtyard space. In addition to making stronger connections to the outdoors, it optimizes summer breezes from the southwest and blocks winter winds from the northeast. A second stair was added and new passages to eliminate dead-ends, simultaneously improving circulation and airflow. The addition provides a new master bedroom, storage, larger dining area/library, and two bathrooms.

Materials in the addition emphasized economy, adaptability and panelized construction (precast and T-Mass SIPs panels). The project adapts old forms to suppress detail/decorative quality and re-emphasize surface, form and space. The design for the house was based on Passiv Haus criteria for passive solar design of the envelope, glazing specifications, and setting criteria for thermal mass and insulation requirements.