A remote rural site along the Taconic Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River prompted this exploration of the relationship between house as a man-made object in the landscape and the country house as an escape from the manmade, which uses culture to maximize the experience of nature.
Tree-trunks lodged along the banks of the creek became an inspiration for the formal massing of this picturesque house. The relationship of the Savage House's two beam-like elements echoes the stacking of trunks, which are washed, roots and all, downriver during stormy winters and deposited along the bank, forming natural bridges and jetties. Man-made detritus also gets caught in these natural barriers as flotsam. Over time, the force of the water altars both natural and cultural artifacts, rusting cans and eroding the wooden trunks. The house evokes the found objects of these man-made forms in nature, and suggests the reciprocal impact of natural and man-made forms. While mostly invisible to its neighbors because of its isolated setting, the house will nonetheless be a cultural intervention into an otherwise pristine environment.
The house is situated on a steep wooded hillside overlooking the flood plain of the Taconic. Beyond the creek banks, gently rolling apple orchards of the Hudson Valley extend in a vista that terminates in the range of Catskill Mountains. The cantilevering of the upper level over the creek maximizes this view for the living areas of the house: music room, sitting room, kitchen and dining. Low-floating fireplace pits and openings to the sky define this series of spaces.
A shaft of glass and steel penetrates this level and provides circulation, via a circular stair, to the lower level. This level, turned thirty degrees from the upper, is deeply embedded in the riverbank, and contains the sleeping rooms and library. Here, glazed surfaces open to the dense woods, which surround the house. Above, at the ground plane, a lap pool is situated along the lower level axis, ending in a cascade, which seems to meet the creek below.
The house provides two orientations to nature for its residents, and suggests also two kinds of man-made artifacts in the environment. The lower level puts the residents at the level of the tree trunks, close to and partly beneath the earth, and near the rushing waters. Made of stone and concrete, it suggests the forces of erosion and burial, the ultimate erasing and merging of the man-made and the natural. The upper level is glass and core-ten steel, which over time, will be expected to rust to the patina indicated in the renderings. This level also dominates its view, and makes no pretenses to being part of the land. Like the cans and mobile homes one passes on route to the property, it is unapologetically man-made. But it indicates through its ever-changing materiality that the human element does not go untouched by nature, and is a reminder that even the most sensitively conceived manmade escapes into nature put powerful and evocative forces into a reciprocal interplay. Developed out of a need to obscure these neighbors and a desire to create a minimal weekend retreat from New York City.
The box house is a simple solution for a simple brief, which required accommodations for a couple and their dog, over night guest were not a consideration. They wanted to feel connected, but protected from nature, also the house needed to respond to nature; natural ventilation, solar gain with low winter suns, but shaded in summer. A glass box was the preference, but unsuitable for the site. A continuous wall became the solution, evocative of a sea wall or barrier, but the structure needed to be light and shaded, a ‘C’ section developed; the floor and roof seemingly cantilever from an axial wall. The structure divides private living space, gardens and the view from public space, the driveway, the road and the neighbors.
The house floats above the terrain, with its base mirroring the roof. The wall clad in white porcelain panels captures the shadows and silhouettes of trees and vegetation, like charcoal on paper, but in an animated rendering. A single opening in the wall reached by two stone steps is the entry into the private world of the house. Three glass walls, set deep within a broad verandah, enclose the house and provide unobstructed views out over the dunes to the sea and Long Island’s North Folk. Large sliding sections of glass wall open the interior to the outside, and a continuous operable skylight along the inside of the wall opens to capture the soft Summer breezes coming in from the Sound.
A large living space containing a fireplace, seating, dining table and kitchen is divided from the bedroom by a solid block, which contains the bathrooms, service space and storage. The wooden floor extends out onto the verandah, but also up the inside of the wall and out across the ceiling. The effect will be reminiscent of a cabin or a boat, and the wood will be raw and allowed to weather with the climate and movement of the salty air.
Material Used :
1. Exterior envelope: Cor Ten Steel
2. Poured in place concrete
3. Interior: European Oak floor boards
4. Interior: Painted white sheet rock walls and ceiling
5. Interior: Bathroom floors and walls Carrara stone slabs
6. Plumbing fixtures: Vola
7. Kitchen appliances: Miele
