NAZARETH HOUSE
Private Residence
Nazareth, PA

In progress
5,000 sq. ft.

This design for a 5,000 square foot house for a retired couple in a typical developer subdivision is driven by two contradictory forces: the conventions of the standard suburban home and the adjustment to the peculiarities of the steeply sloping site. Displaced from its sanctioned location along the street, the house rotates ninety degrees to the public edge and realigns itself with the contours of the site, optimizing solar orientation and desirable views. Rather than an object placed on the site, the house partially imbeds itself within the landscape to form a more protected rear terrace and a maximized southern exposure. Situated between two parallel retaining walls of local stone, views within the house alternate between the more contained landscape of the courtyard to the north and extended views over the neighboring houses to the distant hills in the south. The stone walls are manipulated to produce varying degrees of aperature and access to light.