What was the brief?
It’s the renovation of an original mid-century modern glass pavilion style weekend house located in Connecticut. The owners entrusted Lichten Architects principal, Kevin Lichten and his team to honor the original open concept of the house, while threading in modern systems in order to give the home a cleaner and more contemporary aesthetic. As the house is all about the flow between the inside and the natural landscape outside, Kevin added large expanses of glass in the living room and kitchen, along with more carefully chosen openings in the den and bedrooms to frame vignettes of nature. In the living room, Kevin replaced a series of undulating French doors that opened up to the exterior with a wall of fixed glass doors with only one opening to the front.
To reflect a modern and minimalist aesthetic, Kevin replaced the original brown toned concrete tile floor throughout the first level of the house with one single, seamless plane of concrete. In the kitchen, an appliance column was removed to open up the space and all new minimalist cabinetry and finishes were added. Additionally, Kevin modulated interior and exterior openings throughout the home to create opportunities for the homeowners’ art collection, which includes work by Richard Serra, Paula Scher, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei and Joan Miro.
What were the key challenges?
In general, the owners wanted to turn the original mid-century modern 'cabin' into a sleek modern home. To do so, Lichten Architects had to establish a new design language through the finishes and details that would transform the home into what the clients had in mind, while still harmonizing with the elements of the home that were to remain. The owners were dead set on a few big-ticket items: the sweeping, singular concrete floor that replaced the large inset masonry panels in the floor, and flat metal doors and windows that would replace the undulating wood door system. Existing soffits that had wrapped around the original undulating exterior doors looked awkward and bulky above the newly 'flattened' glazed walls and had to be eliminated and blended into adjacent ceiling language that was to remain (exposed, painted rafters.) Some interior walls had the same wood boards that were on the exterior of the house, which is charming for a cabin, not so much for a sleek, modern house. The new wall finishes throughout were homogenized to further simplify and delineate the finished surfaces in the house.
One of the biggest challenges was integrating the new HVAC system within the existing language of the house. Originally there was no central cooling system in the home. Kevin and his team provided hydronic radiant heat in the new floor slab for the heating and installed a new ducted HVAC system for the cooling. The new ducts had to be snaked in a way that did not interrupt the existing ceiling language or create any new soffits, as the exposed rafter ceiling was one of the most intriguing elements of the house that they wanted to maintain. For example, the duct that fed the kitchen/dining/living room zone had to fit above the upper cabinets on a specific wall in the kitchen- as did the hood vent, some recessed lighting, conduit, etc. Lichten Architects did sectional studies to prove to the HVAC consultant that it was even possible to do so without building out a soffit that did not flush out with the face of the cabinets or adjacent wall. To his and the GC's credit they were open minded and executed these details that Kevin and his team were able to work out.
The main challenge to the project from a construction/logistics standpoint was water mitigation. The existing patio that was to remain and grade immediately adjacent to the house was basically at the same level as the finished floor inside. This meant there was already a fine balance between preventing any water infiltration from the outside, especially since the door sills were all right at the finished floor level. Any water that was not immediately drained away from the site may try to make its way inside. To make matters worse, there was a lot of water moving through the site that was not entirely apparent until the GC demolished the existing floor- which almost immediately exposed pooling water and a natural small stream running right under the house. Water mitigation was something that Kevin and the clients had not anticipated, and the drainage system had to be installed in a way which minimized disturbing parts of the house that were to remain, such as the existing foundation walls. On top of that, the drainage work compromised the construction schedule as well as chewed into the budget.
What materials did you choose and why?
For the metal doors, Lichten Architects went with Optimum 680 series aluminum doors and windows. They looked into having steel doors and windows (also from Optimum) but these were far too expensive, especially when thermally broken, which is a must for energy efficiency. The 680 aluminum doors achieved the contemporary metal look that the owners desired, while having a thermally broken assembly. Also, these doors and windows had a sill design that could be securely and tightly mounted to the existing foundation walls that were to accept the new doors.
Material Used :
1. Facade cladding: Matched existing rough hune paint grade wood boards
2. Flooring: 3500lb PSI poured concrete with “Diamond Hard" concretesealer by Euclid chemicals
3. Doors: Optimum 860 Aluminum series
4. Windows: Optimum 860 Aluminum series
5. Roofing: Rolled-on roofing membrane to match existing
6. Interior lighting: Juno low voltage track lighting and juno low voltage retrofit recessed lights
