KieranTimberlake Pound Ridge House
Description
The site for this home is a south-facing, boulder-strewn escarpment that rises over a hundred feet, from a wetland to the top of a ridge. The owners were drawn to the almost magical sense of tranquility they felt upon their first visit to this heavily forested land, striped with loose-laid fieldstone farm walls from the nineteenth century. Their mandate to the architectural team was simple but not simplistic: they wanted to live in a “house in the woods, of the woods”—to feel the presence of the forest indoors—and to commune quietly with nature and visit with guests within naturally lit, open, airy, warm rooms. The first and most important act of design was selecting the place to anchor the home within the steeply sloped glacial terrain. We were immediately drawn to the ridge itself. Just beneath it were two rock-enclosed “rooms”—one positioned below with another space adjoining it above. Separating these was a small ravine, carrying water from a crevice in the ridge to the wetland below. Within the rock rooms, we placed three shifting volumes that gently respond to the site’s natural slopes and plateaus. The fit of the volumes of the house within these rock enclosures is snug. New stone walls engage the existing stone ledges and boulders in a dialogue that speaks to the forces of nature and man as shapers of place. In response to the dramatic natural scenery, the house itself employs an economy of design that focuses on harmony with the landscape and elemental materiality. The home is the culmination of a carefully crafted journey ascending the glacial terrain. The journey begins below the house as the entry drive wraps around a small pond that holds and filters water from the ridge above. The drive up to the home moves across the slope in curving arcs that work with the contour of the land. Ruins of farm walls and new stone-lined swales weave through the boulders and projecting bedrock ledges, managing the movement of water. The interior of the house is very much an extension of this passage. The path continues beyond the front door, through the crevice between the two rock rooms, beneath the glass bridge, and up a break in the escarpment to the ridge above, with water and humans moving in parallel passage. As the home spatially amplifies the power of physical passage across the terrain, so too do its walls expand and magnify the presence of the spectacular granite outcroppings mingled with the forest. Time of day, season of year, and variations in weather all shift and display in a perpetual dance ornamenting the walls.
Details
5,250 sq ft
Architect
Description
The site for this home is a south-facing, boulder-strewn escarpment that rises over a hundred feet, from a wetland to the top of a ridge. The owners were drawn to the almost magical sense of tranquility they felt upon their first visit to this heavily forested land, striped with loose-laid fieldstone farm walls from the nineteenth century. Their mandate to the architectural team was simple but not simplistic: they wanted to live in a “house in the woods, of the woods”—to feel the presence of the forest indoors—and to commune quietly with nature and visit with guests within naturally lit, open, airy, warm rooms. The first and most important act of design was selecting the place to anchor the home within the steeply sloped glacial terrain. We were immediately drawn to the ridge itself. Just beneath it were two rock-enclosed “rooms”—one positioned below with another space adjoining it above. Separating these was a small ravine, carrying water from a crevice in the ridge to the wetland below. Within the rock rooms, we placed three shifting volumes that gently respond to the site’s natural slopes and plateaus. The fit of the volumes of the house within these rock enclosures is snug. New stone walls engage the existing stone ledges and boulders in a dialogue that speaks to the forces of nature and man as shapers of place. In response to the dramatic natural scenery, the house itself employs an economy of design that focuses on harmony with the landscape and elemental materiality. The home is the culmination of a carefully crafted journey ascending the glacial terrain. The journey begins below the house as the entry drive wraps around a small pond that holds and filters water from the ridge above. The drive up to the home moves across the slope in curving arcs that work with the contour of the land. Ruins of farm walls and new stone-lined swales weave through the boulders and projecting bedrock ledges, managing the movement of water. The interior of the house is very much an extension of this passage. The path continues beyond the front door, through the crevice between the two rock rooms, beneath the glass bridge, and up a break in the escarpment to the ridge above, with water and humans moving in parallel passage. As the home spatially amplifies the power of physical passage across the terrain, so too do its walls expand and magnify the presence of the spectacular granite outcroppings mingled with the forest. Time of day, season of year, and variations in weather all shift and display in a perpetual dance ornamenting the walls.
Details
5,250 sq ft
Architect
