Located in the wooded backcountry of Greenwich, CT, 37HFR includes a main house and pool pavilion in addition to a significant landscape redesign. The main house axis runs on a direct N-S alignment to the tennis court, hugging the front setback and taking advantage of the expansive lawn between house and tennis court/pool pavilion to create an outdoor space for sport and leisure.
The project is conceived as two simple horizontal bars, the basement and second floor. The ground floor in-between the bars, employs a plan that stretches into the landscape, both east and west, with a series of vertical walls, acting as the primary structure and allowing for a well-defined series of interior living spaces. Moving to the exterior as striations carved into the ground, these walls make up a larger system of connections between inside and outside that include plantings and paving that bind the house with the site while simultaneously linking the main house to the tennis court and the pool pavilion. In several locations, the garden spaces terrace or ramp directly into the basement, allowing for abundant natural light and views to the garden from the basement living spaces.
The roof is a streamlined reference to the traditional gable form, broken up with two sectional cuts or negative spaces that contrast with the horizontality of the bar. Each cut corresponds to the vertical circulation in the house, and contains skylights, heightening the experience of the double height void at both locations.