When New York firm Hariri & Hariri unveiled a design for a futuristic residence they called the Digital House in 1998, it caused a stir: in place of walls, the architects integrated floor-to-ceiling LCD panels that, when turned on, were interactive screens and, when off, became completely transparent.
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The house was never realized but, nearly two decades later, its conceptual underpinnings have been reintroduced in a quiet weekend residence in upstate New York. The low-slung structure marries innovation with a vernacular sensibility.
“We wanted it to be part of the architecture of the area, not a machine in the field,” explains Gisue Hariri, who runs the firm with her sister Mojgan.
Their client, a New York City–based IT specialist, wanted a house that was environmentally friendly, on the forefront of technology, and that would provide a comfortable retreat.
After establishing a site defined by a trio of rock formations on the wooded 140-acre property, the architects, inspired by the weathered agrarian buildings dotting the landscape, conceived the house as a collection of woodframed interlocking volumes, or “pods.”
The main volume, a combined kitchen and living space, features smooth stone floors, a double-sided fireplace, and accents of blackened steel.
But it is the concealed elements that make this a smart home: geothermal wells and solar panels provide energy, while a home-automation system allows the client to control the residence remotely through his mobile phone.
The architects paid particular attention to the subtle spaces between volumes, both emphasizing views through the building and out to the landscape. It’s in these areas where the wood structure is most evident, the ipé-clad walls intentionally splayed to evoke the buckling walls of aging barns.
“A lot of people eliminate these spaces,” says Gisue. “I think they make the architecture special.” Luckily, the architects had little difficulty convincing their tech-savvy client of this approach: he was so enthusiastic about the design process, he rendered the house using 3-D software and gave the architects a virtual tour himself.
