In a grazing pasture cut into a rural upstate New York woods, a woman transitioning from metropolitan arts administration to retirement worked with Alchemy to design a modest home in which she could practice her own art, host guests, and age in place. The result is a house that manages to be both modern and traditional—a flexible, achievable model for comparative dwellings using similar design and production efficiencies.
The home is constructed of three structures: weeHouse ‘box’, barnHouse, garage ‘shed’. Each structure has a unique exterior sheathing: standard corrugated weathering steel wraps the Box, black corrugated steel wraps the Shed, and a barn board rain-screen of randomized rough-sawn pine painted black clads the Barn.
The house is heated by in-floor hydronic heat with a dual-purpose condensing boiler, and a wood-burning stove. Exterior insulation forms a thermal break combined with the rain-screen that voids the need for AC. IKEA furniture was customized for both the kitchen and bedroom.