The house can be both the most general and specific act of architecture. In the past, and in vernacular homes today, the house is most often general in its room type and arrangement, with principles of hierarchy - from public to private - nearly always governing location. Room type and hierarchy derive from repetitive use: sleeping, bathing, eating, relaxing, entertaining. The literal accommodation of these needs in the vernacular home is not our interest here. We look to vernacular and pattern rituals as a way to begin. However, it is the reinterpretation of rituals within the custom house, described by circumstantial daily use patterns, which forms the core of our approach.
Combinations and permutations that test conventions about room types are a first area for exploration with the occupants. Which rituals of daily use can be combined and to what degree? How can each act be taken apart and reassembled in ways that derive from and reflect the circumstantial life of the inhabitants? For example, meals were once taken in a single, formal setting but for some may now be taken throughout the house. Entertainment was once centralized in specific rooms but may now be more widely dispersed. How does the fragmentation of use throughout the house effect the arrangement and form of the house?
Site is yet another circumstance that we explore to differentiate house through the agency of place. Vernacular form relates to place in a generic way. We seek an understanding of specific sites at core levels as a basis for the reinterpretation of house form. The house becomes an extension of site, part of a dialog between place and inhabitation. If the site is suburban, the house form may clarify outdoor space into front and back, eliminating side. If the site is rural, the house form may provide boundary and edge to a field, assuming the role of wall in an otherwise open landscape.
All of our houses have been published, won awards, or both.
Select Residential Clients
1315 Hill Street, Ann Arbor, MI
Allingham Summer Home, Chesapeake Bay, MD
Andrew Scott Residence, Philadelphia, PA
Cellophane House, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Fox Residence, Competition, St Louis, MO
Greenberg Residence, Wrightstown Township, PA
Kaplan Residence, Penn Valley, PA
Kegler Residence, Philadelphia, PA
Kline Residence, Thurman, NY
Living Homes, Santa Monica, CA
Loblolly House, Taylors Island, MD
Make It Right, New Orleans, LA
Shapiro Residence, Cherry Hill, NJ
Stufano Residence, Dover, MA
The Rittenhouse-Unit M2, Philadelphia, PA
Tully Residence, Centreville, DE
Urban Edge Developers, Ltd., Dallas, TX
Wallace/Siegel Residence, Philadelphia, PA
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