one house = two apartments densifying suburbiaOur firm was hired to design an addition to an existing 150 years old woodframe house in Glen Ridge, New Jersey for a scientist and a musician with their two young boys with the possibility of using the house as two apartments, one on the ground floor and a second one on the first level.The addition opens the house to the life of the garden and connects the ground floor apartment to a music studio adjacent to the original house. The building is made of black cedar reclaimed wood taken from barrels where black olives used to be contained. For heating, we used radiant wooden floors. During summer, natural cross ventilation will keep the house fresh. The new black box can be completely open to the south and partially to the north west or completely closed; creating different conditions by very simple means.