The Dangle-Byrd project was an opportunity to explore the challenge of maintaining the spirit of craftsmanship within a modern domestic landscape. Set on a wooded five-acre site in rural Pennsylvania, the house is inspired by the neighboring handcrafted Amish farm buildings.

The house consists of three interlocking volumes. The single storied master suite becomes an intimate walnut retreat contrasting the exposed glass living room. A perforated steel bridge passing through a two-storied screened porch reaches the guest suite. The northern end of the house has a private balcony looking down to the lap pool set into the woods.

The exposed engineering of farming equipment and local Pennsylvania trussed bridges inspired the unusual structure of the house. The resulting form is a steel “exo-skeleton” with a wood and glass box suspended within the exposed frame. The structure is not just decorative, but wraps and supports the inner volume as if it were a “ship in a bottle”.

Severe in form, the materiality and craft of the house allows it to become part of the surrounding landscape. The blackened cedar boxes combine the architects’ Japanese background with the simplicity of the Pennsylvania farm buildings. The honest steel structure and rough cedar boxes reinforce the importance of construction.