Willow House

Built for a book maker, a poet and their son in a clearing in the Catskill forest, this house provides space in which each family member can work or play, alone or together. Writing, music listening, homework, film developing, conversation and printing can occur simultaneously in each of many "far corners" in this house.

In addition to meeting the program needs of this family, the design takes advantage of the geographical benefits of the site, buried into the corner of a South facing slope, the house opens onto views of a nearby meadow with a mountain valley in the distance.

During the winter the house is protected from northerly winds by twelve feet of earth and a highly insulated curving metal roof, and opens to the passive solar heat of the sun through a window wall facing south. Flagstone floors provide constant heat from embedded warm water tubing, and a ducted heat recovery system recycles the heat. Furthermore, great internal mass keeps the house warm on winter nights but cool on summer days when fabric awning,   roof overhangs and a "Trombe" wall block the heat of the summer sun. Thirty-three windows sashes can be opened to the mountain breezes,

Simple, low maintenance materials were used throughout, including super insulated windows, thermally broken split face insulated concrete block, insulated structural panels, terne coated stainless siding, and industrial corrugated roofing. This design conserves resources in another important way. Excluding site work, the house was contracted for sixty-eight dollars per square foot.

 

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