architect translucent panels and perforated metal nwa

Prefabricated wall panels are then set in place by hand. Once the ELM is set onto its lightweight foundations, the roof assembly pivots on a steel hinge to create a 16 ft double-height interior space with a built-in sleeping loft. The ELM is prefabricated at an off-site production facility and transported via truck to the building site, arriving as a compact 8’ x 8’ x 22’ container. A building-integrated Active Modular Phytoremediation System (FABS)-an aero-hydroponic green wall planted in a probiotic growing substrate-utilizes plants’ root systems to filter airborne VOCs, particulates, and pathogens, increase indoor microbiome diversity, and reduce fresh air intake requirements. Meanwhile, greywater is recycled to irrigate food crops integrated into the micro-farming wall on the west façade.

During the humid summer months, a de-humidifier system supplements the rainwater supply with moisture captured from the air. All water needs are met through on-site systems, with 80% of rainwater from the roof captured, stored, and filtered for potable water. These solar systems provide 100% of the building’s energy needs. The HeliOptix system produces greater power output per area than traditional solar while using less than 1% of the semiconductor material and transmitting diffuse daylight into the interior. The building’s form and orientation are optimized to reduce unwanted solar heat gain, promote passive stack effect ventilation, provide ample natural light, and maximize sun exposure for its PV and Integrated Concentrating Solar Façade (HeliOptix) systems. Sheltered by scrub pines and affording majestic views across the ocean, this small outdoor space captures the magic of connecting with the Cape which was the guiding goal of the project from the outset. The family has spent much time on the east deck that hangs off the pool edge, in colder months gathering around the fire pit that centers the seating area. The new pool is created by a board-formed retaining wall at the north that establishes the pool edge and a garden plinth to the east of the house. Only the master suite occupies the upper floor, giving it privacy and pride of place the bedroom and bath look due east through large sliding glass doors. The interior is clad in maple hardwood with hickory floors.

Most rooms are on the main floor: the children’s rooms sit within a new deep roof to the north, a guest house at the west is connected to the main house by an outdoor passageway, and all public rooms are arrayed north-south, with long views towards the Atlantic. The chimney was updated with white plaster parging on its interior surfaces and the new exterior form of the chimney is now clad in Atlantic white cedar shingles with stainless trim. Gray Organschi Architecture took the original house down to its foundation, saving only the floor deck, a portion of the roof ridge, and the chimney. Several skylights, placed carefully around the house’s deep interior spaces, wash wall surfaces with daylight. The kitchen and bathroom core, a vestige of Granbery’s design, is flanked along the northwest perimeter by bedrooms and a family room, made more intimate in relationship to the roof above by a shift in section. To the southwest, the massing erodes, revealing expansive glazing and terraces which offer dramatic views over the added pool to the harbor and beyond, shielded by large, louvered screens for privacy.īeyond the glazing lie the living, dining, and kitchen areas, which are tall and celebratory, yet open and relaxed. The building’s minimally abstract volume, articulated by an undulating, folded roofscape, is anchored atop granite outcroppings quintessential to the Connecticut coastline. Striving at once to retain some of the organizational logic and informal spatial qualities of Granbery’s original design, and to reinvigorate it with 21st century simplicity, elegance, and performance, the house was reimagined from the ground up, keeping intact the existing carport.

Architect translucent panels and perforated metal nwa