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New home in North Carolina from Gomes + Staub Architects
The form and narrow wings of the Chen Residence offer the spaces of the house natural light from all directions while providing privacy to an exterior terrace formed from the earth of the foundation excavation. The terrace is the centre of the social life of the house, and views across the terrace and into the protected woods beyond the back of the lot are provided from all living spaces within.
Designed for a sloped lot with a limited construction budget, the house adopts the efficient vernacular building forms of the North Carolina landscape as well as the cost-effective exterior materials of conventional North American home construction, including fiber-cement lap siding, masonry veneer, and asphalt-shingle roofs. A slot of aluminium-framed glazing marks the entry to an interior characterised by tall ceilings, natural light, and white plaster surfaces. The house also attains an energy efficient envelope from normative building techniques. With its first year of full-time occupation nearly complete, it is on target to achieve a total annual energy consumption of less than 7.5 kWh/ft2 (<81 kWh/m2/yr).
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