New England House
There is nothing simple about this cube, which twists and turns in plan and section in an almost dizzying profusion of material and formal explorations.
Tehrani and Ponce de Leon wanted the house to mine - as well as undermine - local building traditions. For the east elevation, which visitors see from the driveway, and the south facade, which they pass on their way to the front door, the architects chose shiplap and board-and-batten siding, materials that, Tehrani suggests, “emerge from the language of the farm.” The more private north and west facades, however, were free to speak languages of the architects’ own invention.
The entry is via an outdoor stairway, where the cedar south facade and rubber west one peel apart, creating a slit that suggests a journey to the center of the earth. The walls bracketing the stairs tilt in, “carving away headroom as you no longer need it,” says Ponce de Leon, explaining one of the moves that show the careful tailoring of plan and section. A mahogany fireplace surround, for example, suggests, in its composition and overlap of vertical and horizontal patterns, a microcosm of the house’s southeast corner. Inflected by the exterior cladding, some of the windows look through horizontal wood slats, while others are pinched by bands of rubber.
