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Long Island Sound house: Old Greenwich, CT

www.brandonpassarchitect.com

Text from concept design proposal:

19 Ford Lane Feasibility and Preliminary Concept Development

Project Data:
The following exploration yielded a 4,500 square foot residence over two levels. The public spaces occupy the main level with the entry at the pinnacle of the site where each subsequent space, such as kitchen to dining to living, descending down the site towards the water. The private realm occupies a mezzanine level accessed via stairs in the center of the building. Four bedrooms; one master suite & three bedrooms along with laundry and a library occupy this level. The library also serves as an elevated overlook and is open to the living room below.

Overview:
This exploration was conducted to analyze the site and its potential for new construction while maintaining respect for the historical significance of the site and the neighborhood usage of the public beach access. Its features and placement are influenced by designated wetland setbacks, neighbor view right-of-ways and privacy from the street while openness to the water for the residence.

The general massing of the building was designed to easily reduce the scope of the owners program requirements without compromising the driving concepts integrity.

General Concept and Spatial description
Inherent geological characteristics as well as constructed elements of the site defined the proceeding design from the outset; the observed wetland areas and relation to historical high water marks, the materiality of the site with its sedimentary rock formations and colossal oak trees, and the historical context of the neighborhood and its inhabitants. As influenced by these factors, the building is situated tightly to the eastern setbacks maximizing the openness of the site, views for neighbors and public beach access. The terracing of the earth establishes a high point on the site upon which the residence is situated. The stone plinth anchors the building and provides spatial definition by level changes at both the interior and exterior to integrate the experience more completely with the site and to blur the boundaries between inside and out.

Materially, the building is a composition of elements derived from, and in some instances directly harvested from the site, deepening its connection to place. The stone plinth rises from the earth in the form of terraces indicative of the existing sedimentary rock formation with lighter, more delicately detailed wood volumes resting upon it. The spaces are functions defined by the inherent properties of the sites materials where one is compressed in cool damp darkness of the stone spaces and released into the vast open warmth of the light flooded wooden volumes nestled against these anchoring stone masses.

Upon arriving to the site, ascension to the entry presents stone walls traced with time. The stone firmly anchors and orients drawing one forward. Influenced by historical forms of Connecticut architecture, the second floor cantilevers to compress the entry procession reinforcing the path. At the highest point of the plinth resides the entry. One enters a vast vertical space with public and private corridors intertwining, mezzanines overlooking and multiple elegantly constructed stairs bisecting the space rising to a seamless atrium above where light filters through dancing on the spaces within. The entries features are reminiscence of grand halls constructed during the ‘later period’ of Connecticut architecture where all paths seem to lead to and from these spaces. They were very important spaces of reception and interaction. This spatial organizing concept coupled with the terraced topography of the floor plan allow the user to feel the spaces defined not by walls but by levels activated by motion. In this way one engages the site occupying the realm between the heavy stone base and the light construction of the timber frame.

The primary circulation via this grand hall is a continuous loop linking all spaces along a singular, unbroken path. The center of this loop is another stone mass defined by the original buildings foundation lines. This angle when set against the geometries defined by the new construction create the spaces of compression and release that exist between the wood and stone volumes. At the end of this wall and defining the core space of interaction is a grand fireplace open on three sides. Serving as a nucleus of warmth and community, it adjoins the dining, living and family on each of its three open faces. The stone hearth rises defining the verticality and openness of this celebrated space at the waters edge.

Occupying the space between the two building geometries are a sequence of lightly constructed stairs. Traversed they lead the user to the private realm above and still further to potential rooftop spaces for optimal view and celebration of the sites drama.

Uploaded on Jul 6, 2011

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