Robert Donnelly and Hayley Eber – DEA
Robert Donnelly and Hayley Eber – DEA
DEA | Donnelly Eber Architects, New York, NY
Simcon Homes | Rodney Simon, Cleveland, OH Description:
The street grid of Shaker Heights accommodates many variations on a theme. Together these form a coherent urban fabric, which has a scale, rhythm, and atmosphere that is at the root of its reputation as one of America’s great streetcar suburbs. This proposal respects that existing context and updates the house typology embedded within it. The exterior is recast as an elegant abstraction of the existing neighborhood pattern language, while the interior is opened up from a series of compartment-‐like rooms into a large loft-‐like space that is more conducive to modern living. The Shaker House offers a range of spaces, from the vaulted double-‐height main space to a series of intimate bedrooms and an open, generous basement. At the top of the house are lofts for sleeping, reading and relaxing. The Shaker House is conceived as a prototype that can be configured in a number of ways according to market needs or client requirements, adding more bedrooms, more public space or both. A range of models based on the same basic building format is envisioned, from small 2-‐bedroom houses to spacious 4 and 5-‐bedroom suburban homes. The Shaker House is designed to work as an individual structure on a single lot between two existing houses, and also in sequences of two or three as shown in the isometric drawing. Materially, the house is conceived of as a monolithic form, using the same material for walls and roof, yet the material itself can be selected from a range of options to further integrate with the existing neighborhood fabric. Energy Efficiency:
The Shaker House is an ultra-‐efficient home. It combines state-‐of-‐the-‐art energy-‐efficient construction, appliances and lighting with commercially available renewable energy systems including solar water heating, solar electricity, radiant floor heating and a wood-‐burning stove. The heart of the system is the Tesla Powerwall, a home battery that stores the sun’s energy and converts it to clean and reliable electricity. The battery pack integrates with Tesla’s latest generation integrated solar panels to collect energy during the day for use in the evening once the sun goes down. The Shaker House incorporates passive solar heating and cooling. Rainwater is harvested from the house through a perimeter French drain (in place of a traditional gutter system) and stored in a rain harvest tank in the basement for grey water use.