This residence, the winner of a Chicago Atheneum American Architecture Award, is set in a heavily wooded site in Princeton Township, New Jersey. The project is an addition to a centrally organized, late modern house with vernacular influences. With the addition, the house becomes an instrument for interacting with the site. Its principal spaces are contained between a masonry base and wood and steel canopy. A variety of views are admitted between these conditions. As the forest canopy provides abundant shade, the house admits light through its roof and disperses it by the use of translucent inclined partitions.
The residence embraces sustainability throughout its redesign. Building orientation, energy efficiency, sustainable material choices, and passive ventilation were all considered. The materials used in the house were subjected to comprehensive evaluation including embodied energy (energy required for extraction, transport, refinement, and fabrication), operating energy, and service duration.