Historical Articles

Good architecture always stands firmly planted in the realm of art. The artfulness of a building comes from the quality of space and light, the use of materials, the expressiveness of the details and the rightness of form that blends invention with imagination to achieve something transcendent. The usual analysis of a building’s place in…

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It has been rare that a professional education in architecture includes an opportunity for investigation into “What is architecture and why should we do it.” Who benefits from what we do; and why do so few people think that they are advantaged by what we do? When architectural investigation does happen in an academic institution…

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In this scheme the design of the greenhouse and ceramics studio was determined. The greenhouse provides additional warm air for the main house and acts as a passage to the dining roof deck. On the south wall of the studio the 3 window/door bays are part direct gain, part active collector, the hot air being…

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The plan of the Arc is relatively simple: split level platforms connected by ramps and sneak stairs. The west level contains the guest bedroom, toilet, shower, spa, utilities, storage, and thermal rock bed. the two levels above that are work spaces connecting to an outdoor deck and bridge. To the east is a sitting areas…

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Clients wishing to retreat for vacations to the top of a mountain in Jamaica, Vermont, sought to create an off-the-grid, off-the-well, and off-the-furnace shelter. This first scheme is intended to evoke the idea of impermanence, while in reality being a long term sustainable camp. Because the ground is all ledge, 9 steel bolts would be…

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Here are some of the schematic versions of the Arc, the art studio/guest house/and growing greenhouse. As the interior plans evolved, exterior forms changed. All explore the use of direct gain and air collectors for heat storage. It was decided that the octagonal schemes were too competitive in scale with the main house, and that…

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Ten years later, the house in Santa Fe, shown previously, needed additional art studio, ceramic studio, spa, and guest space. It was always intended that a studio be errected on a small promontory to the south. Initially it was to be a circular building of the same diameter as the dome, but by covenant all…

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Over the years additions were made to the Long house. The long arched-span was filled in with a garage and studio above, bowed in plan to reflect the arch and to show that it is an insertion. A living room bump was added on the north, and a dining room extension on the south with…

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A two bedroom house with an additional studio apartment was placed on the site in a large bare spot (only 2 baby pinion trees were moved). Mountain views are in all directions except south, the west endows a spectacular distant “sunset view” . The construction is reinforced concrete block with an EIFS to comply with…

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Although a plain looking gabled house from the road, this large vacation house high above Weston,VT shows its real intent on the south facade. The southwest corner is a vertical aluminum and glass tube of sunspace which is allowed to cycle thermally. The other half of the facade is a large solar hot-air collector. In…

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Every once in a blue moon, in Blue Hills, evil spirits rise from Hell to haunt a building project. The clients wanted a “traditional” country home with solar heat and hot water. The design, a neo-Lutyens country manor, was visually devastated during construction, principally because the contractor went broke during framing, and the clients decided,…

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Work was halted for several years, and the program drastically revised, since rather than a vacation home, this was to become a full time residence with a large office, a large shop, and a garage. The following model explores this change: Some partial models that explore the larger program looked at a solid north wall…

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These are a few preliminary attempts to collage diverse elements of the program. The left show elements for creating a court at ground level. Left and center below develop a tripartite north facade, a version of which was later built and includes a vertical axis wind turbine mounted above the chimneys. Below, a long spanning…

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The following sketches are exploration of solar issues and form which led directly to specific systems which were later built, or are still waiting their turn. A conceptual study for the architect’s Vermont house looks at stacking water tanks which are filled from the roof. While waiting to be used, this water, along with its…

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The fold out trailer was proposed for a competition sponsored by Reynolds Metals. The concept was that if the standard trailer could fold out, it could enclose a courtyard. Inside the trailer there would be a greenhouse bay and a deck which would slide out at the site, creating more indoor and outdoor living space.…

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Proposed as a vacation house on a large pond, this prefabricated aluminum frame structure with clip-on pods was conceived as a “Touch-down-lightly” building, It could equally be disassembled and moved elsewhere, leaving the land unscathed. Its energy features comprises greenhouses, solar water heating, photovoltaics, a waste-to-methane generator, and a horizontal axis wind turbine. There are…

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Grassy Brook Village was a heroic attempt on the part of the developer to create ten condominiums, clustered on a hillside in Vermont. Meant to embody all the energy saving methods available, the first scheme organized the houses around a circular court, tied together with a walkway. The manner in which the houses splayed created…

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Beginning in 1970 this house was built in Windham Vermont as a gut response to open the interior to the winter sun. It was an unadorned vernacular solar wall with references to early and mid-century modernism. Several additions were added over the years, with major changes in refinements beginning in 1998, commencing its conversion to…

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Designed in 1968, this modest cabin was built on the north slope of a ski area. In winter the only direct sunlight penetrating the house comes through a large 2 over 2 window at the top of the two story living room/dining room/kitchen space, and even without the leaves the deciduous trees partially shades the…

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