Solar Work 1979-82
Designed in partnership with Michael Epp, this house on the Hudson never surpassed the working drawing stage, due to the clients divorce. However, some interesting solar ideas surfaced; a massive concrete wall divided the house in two, the south side being glazed on a step-back greenhouse with night insulating panels that could hinge open during the day. The other side was more solid to the exterior, but large openings in the mass wall allowed daylight to penetrate all 3 floors of this zone. The oversized solar hot water tank was cast into this wall, and the stair passed into the large space on the way to the second floor. The third floor on the west end was a study with a distant view, and was reached by a stair hidden inside the wall. Most of the mass wall was a rock bed that picked up the heat at the top of the space, but the south face of the wall was itself glazed. In summer a west facing collector drove chimney-effect ventilation for cooling. This idea was embellished in the next house in Blue Hills, MA.