DIPTYCH HOME | New Haven Test for a Minimum Dwelling

The critical element of this projected minimum dwelling lies in the idea that heat gets stacked vertically. In the “vertical home”, the inhabitant gets undressed as he ascends through the spaces. The progression goes from cold and public spaces – the living room and kitchen – to the warmest and most intimate spaces – the bedroom and bathroom. By embracing the notion of thermal comfort, the project imagines what a true minimum dwelling could be in a time of global warming and ecological crisis. This first project gets translated to the given New Haven site. In order to fully address the elongated lot, the project starts with the introduction of a diagonal axis to the rectangular geometry of the site, thus dividing it in two parts. This trace becomes an environmental wall, the boundary that defines two clear entities but also the connecting spine of the whole. The servant space of the house is accommodated along this feature, serving the diurnal spaces on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the upper floors. These units function according to common principles, both on the outside with the scenography of the garden, hardscape and transitional spaces, as well as on the inside with a play of natural light coming from skylights attached to the central wall.

New Haven, Connecticut

Spring 2014 // Critic: Alan Organschi

Project published in Retrospecta 37

Scheme selected for development by Team B in part II of the Building Project