Princeton House
The Princeton House sits in a long thin 3-acre site, a former White Pine tree farm, 10 minutes from Princeton University. The site is punctuated by the 100 foot tall trees in a grid that consistently runs north-south across the site covering the first 2/3 of the site. At the rear of the site, hardwoods constitute the forest as the lot abuts a nature preserve. The house is sited in the hardwoods and is organized around a central garden courtyard.
The house is simple in its design concept and its sustainable strategy. It uses basic, tried and true ideas of passive solar heating, cross ventilation for cooling and a highly calibrated choreography of window placement to create connection to the outdoors.
The central courtyard contains a garden that is protected from the deer and creates an interior - exterior space. In addition, this courtyard allows for natural ventilation to occur throughout the house mitigating the need for air conditioning by being located in the middle of the house and open to the second floor. The kitchen, living, dining and library all spiral around the courtyard. At the north end a stair runs along side the courtyard to the second floor bedrooms. With so many large windows as well as the centrally located courtyard, the house is constantly flooded with natural light that changes throughout the day.
Windows are located in relation to views out towards the landscape. The windows are placed at heights that align with the activity on the inside of the house. So a window next to the dining room is lower (for viewing at a sitting position) than at the kitchen counter (viewing at a standing position). The sizes of the windows are determined by the program inside, the direction of the sun at different times of the day and desired views. In addition, these windows, along with the open courtyard, allow for cross ventilation to occur throughout the house.
Like the exterior facade windows, the interior courtyard windows move in height and frame the views through the house across the courtyard. The layering of windows creates a myriad of framed views from interior to exterior to interior.
The exterior is clad in a vertically oriented corrugated metal siding. The white palette of the house both on the outside as well as the inside creates a neutral frame for highlighting the color and light of the outdoors.
This project takes on the principals of sustainability in terms of non-technological intensive pragmatism in the following ways:
- Simple, Low or No Cost Solutions
- Use of Natural Ventilation
- Efficient Radiant Heat + South Exposure Thermal Mass Concrete Floor
- Light Filled Environment
- White Exterior Cladding that Reflects Heat from the House
