Hillside House
Upstate NY
In the hills of eastern upstate New York, this new high-performance shared house is marked by twin gable forms connected by a large, glassed-walled living porch that overlooks the valley below. With a view of mountains in the distance, the residence has an elegant in-ground pool on its landscaped grounds. The house is built as two volumes around a central, lodgelike shared space, which serves the two families along with extended guests. Responding to the rural setting, the main gabled volumes are clad in shiplapped cedar siding and local Connecticut fieldstone. To conserve energy, the house was carefully oriented on its hilltop site to capture maximum daylight as well as prevailing natural breezes inside as well as outside.