Deck House
Redux
New Fairfield, CT
The brief here was deceptively simple: revive an unloved Deck House on a spectacular site. This project was GOA’s third foray into Deck House modifications, and was the largest overhaul of this post-war kit house type that we’d been asked to undertake. Deck Houses – an ingenious prefabricated post-and-beam affordable house – proliferated across the country in the mid-century. They offered many benefits, including quick installation thanks to their exposed wood structure and their simple, repetitive plans. But they also contain rigid planning and structural techniques that make modifications tricky.
The clients’ goals for some modest additions, generous outdoor terraces, and a complete reworking of the building’s interior plan and envelope, while bringing the building’s environmental performance into the 21st century, on an extremely narrow and steep site, were challenging.
Our solution included a total overhaul of the building’s plan, as we added significant spatial interest to the formerly stacked floor plates via a double-height living space facing the lake; the restoration of the building’s post-and-beam structure, with judicious removal of columns to create open living spaces, and a full mechanical update, supported by biobased insulation. We saved all interior and exterior wood surfaces and structure to the greatest extent possible.
The result is our homage to the Deck House vision of post-war prefab simplicity, rooted in natural materials, that now performs well environmentally and offers a new variety of interior and exterior spaces to the family who have made this old house their new home.
Photography
Jasper Lazor