Artreehoose, Lakeside House by Della Valle Bernheimer in United States
January 22nd, 2009 - Posted in Home Design Ideas
Artreehoose is lakeside house draws inspiration from the sensation of being sheltered underneath tree canopies was designed by Architect Della Valle Bernheimer. Wedged into a tight lot along Lake Candlewood in New Fairfield, Connecticut, this new 5400 sf home’s form and structure was derived from observations of trees, sustainable building techniques, and the requirement that the structure match a previous home’s footprint. The architects used multiple study models in several media to investigate how light flows through perforations and secondarily to observe how certain materials would be suited to create a stable, discrete, but minimal structure that seemed to float and protect, much like tree canopies.
Organized around the central double-height volume spanned by long-span wood joists, the ground floor is wrapped in monumental sliding glass panels, opening up the house and connecting the inside, quite literally, to the outside. Wrapped in American Black Walnut, a stairwell to the second floor anchors the house like a tree trunk. Upstairs, two cantilevers contain bedrooms which jut out over the lake like into the surrounding trees themselves. Carefully located skylights illuminate the great room and each of the upstairs spaces, as if light were coming through gaps in tree branches.
