Peel House

2007 - Pittsfield, The Berkshires, MA, USA

A residential addition for an elderly family member moving back home, the project designed and built by the design architects provides a distinct programmatic separation while formally unwravelling its exterior surfaces to embrace the existing house. The exterior surfaces of the project are made up of stacked cedar members that are ‘stitched together’ at surface intersections, the detailing of which allow for opaque areas and for partially transparent areas along the building’s exterior. The partially transparent areas occur at windows and doors allowing for sun shade, privacy, ventilation, and an experiential and physical connection to the natural environment in which the project is situated.

At a detail level, the project utilizes an alternating A-B system of surfaces made of the linear stacked cedar. In order to maintain consistent data through which to align the linear elements, digitally fabricated vertical ‘teeth’ were inserted at intervals to maintain accurate overlapping, and to allow for material expansion and contraction.

For the interior spaces, bamboo is used along with Ipe wood to define the spatial enclosure of the primary living space while slate and corten steel are used in the private bathroom.