This house, designed for a young family seeking an uncluttered lifestyle, responds to their request for “a house that draws you outdoors and accommodates large parties, all the while affording our family total privacy." It is constructed with sustainable materials and designed to be energy efficient to withstand the bitter winters just outside Buffalo, New York.

The project is laid out as a series of garden rooms. Privacy is modulated by solid white walls, which extend from deep within the house, into the landscape outside. Material and color choices are restrained, so that the building can be a blank canvas for the play of natural and artificial light.

The living room features twelve-foot by four-foot sheets of high-performance glass on the exterior of the main room are held in place with thermally broken sliding aluminum frames. These can be opened on temperate days, allowing the house to be cooled by cross breezes.

The kitchen is as minimalist as the rest of the house. A metal mesh curtain provides a subtle division between work and living areas. The curtain is retractable and stores out of the way in a wall pocket when not is use.