The New Canaan Residence is nestled into a lush hilltop site in this forested part of Connecticut. The house was designed to engage the landscape and immerse the occupants in the full range of environments that the site offers. What the completed house doesn’t show is its modest beginnings: this is a renovation of a 1950’s house which had a series of unsympathetic additions from the 60’s and 70’s, and whose owners originally wanted only a kitchen upgrade.
This project was developed as apartments for artists by Mutual Housing Association, a nonprofit organization working to provide quality affordable homes for working families in New Haven, CT. Located on Dixwell Avenue, the surrounding area is a mix of commercial and light industrial buildings bordered by a residential neighborhood – the existing property and buildings sat vacant for 15 years before MHA bought the property.
Community room/gallery with three bedroom duplex apts above
Article source: Newick Architects
Photographs: Robert Benson Photography
Located on an extraordinary coastal Connecticut site, this house sits at the edge of Long Island Sound. A four bedroom, simple plan, 1950’s ranch existed on the site when the project began. Its proximity to the water would not have been replicable if not for the existing condition. A sixty foot long window wall, eight feet high now offers an unobstructed view of the Sound. The colors and materials of the interior range from grey to white and have surface reflectivity that ranges from matte to reflective.
Located in a natural clearing within a wooded hillside of northwestern CT, this watering hole serves as a sustainable entertainment and relaxation center from the hectic urban existence, a place to go from always being “on”, to actually shutting “off” for a bit – a place to simply chill out. The 16 x 52 module contains a sleeping zone at one end of the module, and a food prep consumption digestion zone at the other. In between sits a recycled black-steel core, a volume containing the bathroom, steam shower, laundry, storage, and a heat-generating fireplace. Although ‘floating’ in the middle of the space and not connected to a perimeter wall, the core is filled with natural light from a skylight above and frosted glass pocket doors; an outdoor shower brought indoors.
Tags: Connecticut, Sharon Comments Off on Connecticut Pool House in Sharon, Connecticut by Resolution: 4 Architecture (designed with FormZ and Vectorworks)
Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Kroon Hall
The Kroon Building unifies the dispersed faculty buildings across Science Hill by becoming a new focus for this ‘micro’ campus. It establishes a strong architectural identity for the faculty, forming a new centre for the study of sustainability and has been awarded LEED™ ‘Platinum’ certification by the US Green Building Council.
The living space of this Connecticut residence is formed by a spiraling ribbon of 18 planes, defined by 36 points connected by 54 lines. This pure and dynamic architectural form generates distinctive interior spaces while dramatically framing both near and distant landscape scenes. Large glass planes virtually disappear within the ribbon, allowing unimpeded picturesque views of 18th century hay meadows and giant oaks. Circulation through kitchen, living, dining, and sleeping areas is seamless and free-flowing, as is the distinction between interior and exterior space. Challenging both traditional and modern notions of “the house in the landscape,” this design gives nothing of itself up to its natural setting, but selectively incorporates the elements therein for the enhancement of both house and landscape.
This project is conceived as a series of concrete retaining walls and escarpments that traverse and cascade down a steeply sloped site approximately 700 feet deep and 300 feet wide. In response to the steep + diagonal slope of the existing topography, the site / building strategy is to deploy a series of straight walls that act as “jetties” into the landscape and respond as a counter-force to. As these walls begin to interact with the landscape they modulate and redistribute the sloping terrain into a series of terraces and gardens that spill and slide past one another.
PL 44 House - (c) David Sundberg / Esto Photographics
With the BRIO54_H4 product line we set out to design a modern green home type that is well-suited to typical small and narrow shoreline lots and offers a clean functional layout, bright open spaces while adhering to a very tight budget.
Through an open ideas competition, Gray Organschi was awarded the commission to design a threshold between a restored riverbank and an urban edge in Stamford, Connecticut. Their urban porch proposal is composed of a shaded lattice formed from simple framing propped by gangs of timber pilings driven at slight angles to emulate the trunks of the trees in the meadow to the north. Deep slender joists of standard dimensional lumber, bolted into pre-tensioned units, are aggregated and pulled taut to create an expanded grid of wood, the upward pressure of the timber tripods forcing the trellis to undulate slightly, a torsion fostered by the longitudinal geometries and connection system of the continuous timber frame. Beneath it, a simple banding of concrete planks, interrupted selectively by broad joints of reinforced thyme and grass, provides a steady surface for strolling, seating and a chess game.
The combination of the three buildings on the block, Rose Center / University Police, Yale University Health Services Center and structured parking, along with site structures and landscape elements create a reinterpretation of the traditional, interiorized Yale campus block. This configuration allows not only pedestrian but also automobile passage easily into and through the site, a thoroughly contemporary campus block condition. As with the traditional block, building entries are located internal to the block.
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