The Metamorphosis 

The owners of a Clark’s Summit, Pennsylvania, home approached INTERSTICE Architects originally wishing to build a connected, but separate, two-story structure—to finally have a house with a functional layout for both larger family gatherings and intimate private dwelling. INTERSTICE took on the project and soon convinced the owners to fix the poorly configured home rather than expand the problem of a dysfunctional space unsustainably: with more house, there would be an increase in energy, materials, and maintenance with forest destroyed and land wasted. Instead, the firm stressed the greener solution of building less, and intelligently reusing the original structure by transforming it into a well-designed home for under half the cost of new construction. The introduction of a new, high-performance superstructure onto and into the original house effectively doubled the usable area of the existing structure. The new volume is a metal “prosthetic” that transfigures and entirely reprograms the now three-story, wood-framed house on this forested Pennsylvania site.

Dynamic Expansion

The contemporary intervention of the metal volume over the original house is clearly distinguished from the existing masonry-clad structure, which was largely left in place as the two volumes interlock, opening the central core and expanding the interior floor plan of the house. A subtle and carefully restrained material palate of cherry wood and satin white lacquered wood completes the metamorphosis, providing within virtually the same footprint, all the new program requirements. At its core, a dynamic tensile enclosed stairwell with plenty of operable skylights bring a cascade of sunlight deep into the house while passively ventilating the entire three-story structure from attic to basement. The original masonry walls, mostly preserved and covered, increase the overall thermal mass of the resulting compact home, now protected by a sophisticated cold-roof and high-efficiency thermal insulation and eco-centric systems.

 

Seamless Space

Reborn, the interiors flow with light intimately connected to the surrounding forest, creating a beautifully crafted, contiguous environment of informal space for anything from cooking to studying. The rationalized structure allows partitions to dissolve between entry, living, kitchen, and dining rooms—a true open plan. The entry was reoriented by way of a vestibule which initiates an undulating ribbon of patterned relief that moves between interior and exterior to provide a weather buffer, storage space, passageway, music niche, entry foyer, and seating as it ties the composition of the space together, inside and out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merging with the Forest

The wall facing the neighboring forest was completely replaced by a smart-wall consisting of floor-to-ceiling cabinetry that cleverly conceals a wet bar, television, and yards of absorbed program to triple the home’s available storage while sensitively placed perforations along its length frame the spectacular forest beyond. Fenestration permeates upwards to an expanded attic space, extending the upper metal envelope out into the framed landscape. A unifying exterior deck extends from this ribbon to step down into the forest, bringing the living space out onto the site, permitting the house to blend and merge with its vast grounds.

• Landscape
• Residential