New Hope House

The site for the house sits atop a hill in a rolling agrarian landscape on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Once an active farm, much of the land has been placed into a conservation easement that limits the development of the property to a small area tucked in the corner of a forest with sweeping views east, south, and west.

The vastness of the site is both its strength and liability. The design of the home harnesses the incredible views and solar opportunities that will warm the house in winter and illuminate the spaces within. The design responds to the scale of the site by creating an intimate interior courtyard for gathering and repose. The form of the house locates the two-story sleeping spaces along the north to allow light and air to flow into the courtyard throughout the day.

The building will be clad in masonry on the ground floor to lock into the landscape and create a more durable interface with the land. The upper story will be a lighter, warmer wood cladding that enables walls to open and close in response to levels of privacy or solar orientation.

A series of openings in the roof draw light into key spaces lighting the path into the home: a breezeway marks entry to courtyard, a courtyard formally mimics these openings at the scale of the house, a generous staircase for accessing the bedrooms, and a clerestory is perched above the dining and cooking areas to draw air and light.

New Hope, PA

Completion in 2023

 

A breezeway leads visitors from the driveway area to the front door. Along the way, a courtyard smooths the transition from the vastness of the site to the interior living spaces. This intimate interior landscape is light-filled and mimics the curved form of a smaller opening within the breezeway.

Early sketches examining the relationship of mass, overhang, and fenestration (window and door openings).

Subtle shifts in the plane of the brick, use of screens and patterned protrusions to add shadow and character help to break down the scale of the house in the courtyard. Large full height window openings are focused at key vistas through the house. Exterior brick flows into the house at key moments like the fireplace and the staircase volume.

 

The building reads from the outside like a village of independent structures: a barn, a studio above a garage, a living volume capped by a clerestory, and a bedroom wing along the north side. The second floor volumes are detailed as a series of gently sloped, wooden roof monitors - a nod to the traditional gable and shed barn structures in the area.

Iterative study models were used to establish the best configuration of rooms and how to best take advantage of the sun and shading capabilities of the site.

 

A small vegetable and fruit tree garden is situated just past the driveway area directly accessible off the courtyard. The south wall of the sleeping volume is largely solid, providing privacy and solar isolation from the harsher western sun.

Along the south side, a deep-set roof provide shade and shelter in the summer while inviting abundant sun during the winter months.