Sun Catcher House
This thoughtful, modern residence just outside NYC gives a young family a restful place to work, play, and create from home. While the iconic Westchester neighborhoods provide top notch schools and lush green spaces within a desirable proximity to the city, the local design sensibility has mostly become stuck in thoughtless references to the past. The design of Sun Catcher House looks toward the future to consider how the new architecture will interact with the climate, the community, and the family’s daily lives.
The south-facing, rear of the home opens wide up to bring as much natural light
inside the home as possible. The U-shaped courtyard design creates a central pocket that brings bright,
wellness-inducing goodness into the areas of the home where the young family will gather together most
often.
However, since the seasonal temperatures swing dramatically in Westchester, it was important to prevent the
summer sun from overly warming the house. To prepare for this, the rear windows were adorned with carefully
calibrated overhangs that prevent direct sunlight in those warmer months – saving both energy and money
along the way.
In order to create the boundless rear yard we imagined for the family’s two young
children, we opted to place the home as close to the front edge of the property as possible. However, this
meant that we would need to create privacy from the street.
This was achieved by placing much of the ancillary space (like garage, hallways & storage areas) toward the
front facade which minimized the need for street-facing windows. Additionally, the ground-level entry
procession is carved into the landscape and lined with ornamental trees to create a secondary screen while
filling the home with views of nature.
The home’s form is defined by a stacked geometry that creates efficiencies in the structure and reduces construction costs & material waste. This same fastidious geometry is also apparent in the home’s floor plan, where it is consciously defined by a clean grid that makes walking around inside the home unconsciously feel orderly and harmonious.
