The project hinges on the following main ideas: the first was to insert a LEED platinum contemporary renovation into a 1920’s structure in a way that would contrast and complement. Small unused spaces were reconfigured by expanding them for a multiplicity of programs. Connections with the exterior were set up where every space has a unique relationship to the outside; sometimes framing a view, sometimes blurring the boundary between inside and out. The street elevation scale was preserved while entry and site were designed to promote neighborhood interaction on a corner in a highly walkable area.
Strategies to reduce demand include improved daylighting, 90% high efficacy lighting, and relocating openings. Additional sustainable issues for this project combined passive and active technologies: radiators fed by a high efficiency boiler, solar water heating, improved existing envelope, greater water efficiency, rainwater harvesting, phase changing drywall, and photovoltaics. Simultaneously there was a material agenda that not only contrasted new from old but re-used materials on site: beams became benches + counters became fountains. Salvaged walnut slabs became a counter and framing harvested from a local demolished factory became the living room floor.
The result is a high-performing home that has been completely transformed while respecting the layered history of the house.
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