HSU House / EPIPHYTE Lab

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Text description provided by the architects. The Hsu House is a small home designed using passive solar principles to create an inexpensive, ecologically sensitive, energy efficient dwelling for a growing young family. Rising out of a hillside south of Ithaca in upstate New York, the bifurcating roof covers a house organized around a three story main living space which functions as both a spatial nexus and a natural ventilation stack. The volume is divided by an interior south facing cast-in-place concrete heat sink mass wall, which stores energy and animates light, creating an all season solarium that, in the summer, opens and unfolds into the natural landscape. The exterior surface of the house features solar-responsive cement board siding pattern that transitions from dark to light according to its orientation. From the outset, the intention was to minimize the cost of finishes and fixtures and spend the budget on structure and systems. Consequently, the material palette is simple (bamboo, drywall, cement board & concrete) while the forms and spaces are more complex.