The House: A Suburban Design Like No Other

When it comes to modern homes, there are certain design elements that are expected. However, the house we're discussing today is anything but typical. One of the things the owner is most proud of is that there's no such thing as a front yard or rear yard. The whole house is connected to yards, and the moment You come in, the gate opens up, and voila, you have yard and house all together. This changed everything completely, and it's one of those things that the owner is really proud of because it's part of the experience of entering the home.

The Property and Its Design

The property where the house is located had an existing house for years, and the owner lived across the street. He ended up befriending the caretaker, and as years went on, she said that the lady who lived there was going to have to go to hospice care. She asked if he was interested in buying the property, and of course, he was. The original idea was to take the house that was there, renovate it, and then maybe flip it. However, a company out of Canada, Quebec, contacted him, and it's a company called bone structure. They make a system home, which is a kit of parts, but it's not a prefab home, and it's not a panel home. It's the structure only, so you get 90% recycled steel and pre-cut plywood sheathing, and that's it.

The lot is 260 feet long, and the house is 210 feet long, which is a length of four city buses, and it literally bridges over the brook and nature. The idea is you start from one end, meander yourself all the way towards the back. In terms of design, there is a public to private as well, so everything in front of the brook is on the public side, and everything behind it is all the private side.

The Building Process

The process to build this was really grueling and difficult. Typically, on a flat lot, it would take about 18 months to get something that's built. This was really difficult because they had the brook in the middle, and they had to build from the back forward. They had to do things out of sequence. Typically, you could build the house and then go around it like a donut. Here, they had to go from back to front. This took three years to build, so design was probably six months, and permitting was about six months. They almost didn't even get the permit, so it was really, really difficult.

The Engineering Marvel

This house is an engineering marvel. It has every Type of building foundation you can have. The bridge span is 65 feet using two steel beams that are the same as what is used for highways. The house itself is engineered out of all steel, 90% recycled steel. When you heard the construction on here, it sounded like a body shop because it's all air tools, no cutting. Reduction of waste is a big thing in construction, and they're very proud of that because if it's in CNC machining at the factory, all the fall off of the steel gets recycled again for the next beam. All the wood sheathing is the same thing, cut apart, reformulated into new plywood. The only time they did cutting would be drywall and finishes. Otherwise, reduction of waste.

The Experiential Design

The thought that came to the owner was experiential. The entry starts with the gate and the experience of sound. The gate opens really slowly as the magic begins, and then you're welcomed in. You have the pavers that were a byproduct of this house. They worked with like 75 different vendors, and one of them is a company called concrete collaborative. The idea is that going back to it, it's experience. You come in, and you drive over and walk over, and you get a certain kind of sound. You Continue through, and there's the gravel you walk, and you get the crunching sound. You start to hear the babbling of the brook, and you start to hear the wind going through the trees. It's all these experiences that layer, and as the owner Mentioned, music is really important. It's if you had to put a soundtrack to it, you would have the big drums boom boom, the big sound, and that's the amount of energy that's being pulled into the human as you're taking it all in. It's a sensory kind of overload, nature, and man-made all of it coming together almost like staccato. It changes your rhythm. You're slowing down as you're going into the private sector of the house.

The beauty of that is that once you're at the other end and you're looking back, because of the angle and the spacing that they've crafted, you actually will get full privacy. You won't see your neighbor, and your neighbor won't see you, and you have all the light you could ever want. Again, it's passive. The house is working for you. You're not working for the house.

The Importance of Fluidity

The big challenge of design that came from within the owner was how to Create so much variety and so much pull and interest in space within 20 feet by 10 feet for 210 feet right without creating drama by making this wall angled or putting this. It's constrained, and it doesn't rely on the materials. It relies on the space making the sun. That's the owner's favorite trend. If you had to ask about where the sun sets and rises, that's it. That's the trend that he goes off of. The sun rising and setting, and that's the architecture is the vessel of light.

Conclusion

This house is a testament to the fact that you can create Timeless design that connects to the neighborhood without disrupting the neighborhood. In a way, it gives back to the neighborhood. They recently got a Historic Landmark plaque, which is unheard of for a modern home. It's only built in 2019, and in a community that's almost against modernism, it's all about historic preservation, and yet they're getting one of these plaques from the historic preservation. It's just a testament to the fact that you can create timeless design that connects to the neighborhood without disrupting the neighborhood. The owner takes ownership of this home in that regard, like he is here as a steward of history and to welcome people in. It's always open in that Sense, and it takes a different place. People ask him how he's willing to do that, and he signed up for that from day one. It's a unique home, and it suits him now.

Highlights

The house is a modern design that is anything but typical.
The property is 260 feet long, and the house is 210 feet long, bridging over the brook and nature.
The house is an engineering marvel, with every type of building foundation you can have.
The experiential design is all about the entry and the experience of sound.
The importance of fluidity is a big challenge in design.
The house is a testament to the fact that you can create timeless design that connects to the neighborhood without disrupting the neighborhood.
The owner takes ownership of this home as a steward of history and to welcome people in.