Lauren Thomsen Design’s Northern Liberties single-family residence combines craft-driven design and high performance new construction, and aspires to be a model for individual commitment to energy resilience in the 21st century.
Given the site’s unique context adjacent to a beloved local park, the design team set out to construct a residence that not only solved the programmatic equation, but also was in dialogue with the open space to the south. Study of the building massing led to the decision to set back a portion of the building from the property line. This sacrifices interior living space, but allows for glazing on the southern exposure, provides a visual connection to the park, and allows for a small terrace off of the main living space. It also mitigates the typical solid party wall condition that is prevalent in Philadelphia and presents an opportunity for change in materiality, which pairs resilient corrugated metal with rich (and Pennsylvania sourced!) thermally modified tongue and groove red oak siding.
Despite its 18’ width and total of 1,675 sf of conditioned living space (not including the garage), the four bedroom, three bathroom home does not feel like a traditional rowhouse. The decision to set back the façade to create a terrace off the living room and to allow solar access along the long southern wall (atypical for a row house) makes the project special. It also serves to better connect the project to the adjacent park.
The well-lit and quiet interiors feel spacious, and evoke a rare sense of quiet and calm in an urban environment. The most surprising part of the project is how spacious the interiors feel despite the tiny size of the home. The clients were downsizing and wanted a minimal approach in terms of space and amenities. The design has an honest and simple material palette. Character grade white oak is employed throughout the home, used in many different applications such as stair treads, railing caps, flooring, and facia boards. The clients requested as little tile as possible in the bathrooms so the wood flooring was used there as well.
The project is also a story that speaks to intergenerational living and the benefits of urban density. There is a bridge in the backyard that connects this home (owned by the grandparents) with the parent's home located immediately behind so that the young grandchildren can safely and easily travel between the two homes.
Archetype Photo
The project received PHIUS+ 2018 Passive House certification and includes onsite battery storage. The envelope is highly insulated and airtight, built with an interior service cavity as well as 4” of continuous exterior insulation. The amount of glazing was moderated to provide ample daylight but not an excessive amount of solar gain or thermal transmission. An electric car charger, smart energy panel, and home energy automation systems have been installed to allow for source control and continuous monitoring of energy production and utilization.
The narrow project site (the site is only 226” wide) is located off of a tiny 9’ wide cobblestone 'cart' street which is used largely by pedestrians. These dimensional constraints made construction logistics challenging, but the team was able to surmount them. From a performance perspective, designing and constructing a passive house in an attached and urban condition was challenging, but very regionally appropriate for Philadelphia. LTD worked with PHIUS, the organization that governs passive house and ultimately certifies the project, to modify their standards to accommodate attached single family homes and pave the way for other architects with similar design ambitions.
