Putney House is located on the south and west facing slopes of Putney Mountain, Vermont this house engages the landscape and reinterprets the simple volumes of Vermont rural architecture. The house is broken into three volumes arrayed around a large rock outcropping with open spaces that frame vistas of the Green Mountains. This house is designed by KYU Sung Woo Architects.
Each volumes has different function. a shed volume serves as a workshop and storage outbuilding, and two connected volumes form the main living quarters of the house. one volume serves a private family space, other volume as a public studio and meditation space. This house is suitable for weekend gathering place for three generations of family from around the region with three main bedrooms which are arranged to provide privacy while children’s rooms with play lofts are integrated with the public areas.
The house is designed for maximum contact with the exterior, reinterpreting local building materials with stained Western Red Cedar siding and corrugated steel. There are three outdoor spaces which has unique exposure. A south facing sliding glass wall extends the kitchen/dining space outdoors with an eighteen foot clear opening. The studio space extends west through a sliding glass door to a wood-lined screen porch and a view of the mountain forests beyond. Narrow window openings on the north walls protect the house from winter winds.
The studio is detailed by white plaster walls and an acoustic fabric ceiling for piano recitals while the living quarters are selectively clad in local granite, maple and mahogany woods to impart a feeling of warmth. and the building is framed by lumber with a prefabricated wood truss providing a large span opening at the kitchen/dining area. Thick walls are encapsulated by high performance insulation and staggered wood stud construction minimizes thermal bridging to the interior in the winter months. Large aluminum windows admit abundant natural light to counteract Vermont’s short winter days while overhangs provide summer shading. Wood stoves fueled with felled trees from the site are supplemented by radiant heat floors.
