 his
home was designed and built by the Architect for the owners, who
participated in its design. As with the home with a distant view
of the church steeple in Guilford, this home also has a radially-framed
kitchen-dining-living area and a rectangular shaped bedroom section.
Here the living area is in the form of a half circle with a two-story
high ceiling on the straight side, but a standard eight-foot ceiling
around the perimeter.
The hallway
into the bedroom end is a sky-lighted galleria. The lower level
of this section contains a three-car garage, activity spaces, a
darkroom and bathroom. The lower level under the living space consists
of a large library on one side and utility room on the other. |
 |
The kitchen and dining room comprise one half of this area and the
living room the other half, and these two halves are delineated
by a large two-sided stone fireplace in the center. The rectangular
bedroom section connects to the half-circle form of the living space
at the center of the flat side under the massive arched support
for the laminated beams.
One unique feature
of this home is the beadwalls comprising the fixed glass around
the perimeter of the living area. These are widely spaced double
glass layers with the space between the glass layers connected by
vacuum tubes to storage containers in the basement containing foam
beads. |
|
By electric controls, as with a central vacuum cleaning system, the
beads are drawn into the space between the glass, thereby converting
a passive-solar glass wall by day into a solid insulated wall by night.
In the morning, the electric switch reverses the flow, and the beads
are returned to the containers in the basement. In two places between
the beadwalls, access to the surrounding decks, as well as outside
air, is provided for the two halves of the living space end of the
house. |
