(c) mos 2010

2002-4_HillHouse permalink

  • The Hill House’s site, in the Finger Lake region of upstate NY, slopes dramatically towards the water.Due to the slope and budget constraints we reworked the single story vernacular typology into a two story house by integrating the house into the slope, utilizing the basement as living space and incorporate the view into the design. The basement level was turned into living space through the introduction of a void at the center of the plan, subverting the typical basement condition of the adjacent houses. Similarly we inverted the vernacular typology to radically open up the interior to the outside. The shape of the roof became a distorted vernacular gable roof that reflects and responds to the shape of the site, running parallel and marking plateaus and shifts in the landscape. The interior space is a hollowed out bubble with the same shape as the roof. To provide passive cooling in the summer, the void of exterior space that penetrates the center of the plan allows for passive ventilation and induction, while the white roof is common amongst the agricultural buildings nearby because it performs well in that climate and is efficient in reducing heat gain during the summer time. In the lower level, the ground at the void becomes a fragment of ground/landscape- a small moss garden.
    Photos by Florian Holzherr
    Upperplan

    Lowerplan

    Untitled-23s

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_4

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_6

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_5

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_1

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_2

    2002-3_pomerantzhouse_7

    Plans-overall2