Design-build addition to residence, Ithaca, NY

Design notes and portfolio of images

This project is a design-build addition to my home in Ithaca, New York. The challenge was to double the floor space of a small (1,200 sq. ft.) house on a small (1/5 acre) lot by designing and building the addition myself (with help from my wife, Susan); to exploit standard and inexpensive technologies in innovative ways; and to explore the potential of an architecture grounded in functionality.

Function versus fashion

The modernist syntax was neither the starting point for the design nor its transcendent aim. Instead, it served as a vehicle to reexamine the potential of "functionality," in which architecture emerges from what is necessary, rather than from being applied as ornament — Ruskin's definition of architecture — or from a willful distortion of what makes sense in order, for example, to express something about contemporary culture or manipulate form for its own sake.

I do not mean to imply that architecture emerges spontaneously, or in any deterministic manner, from this discipline of functionality. Instead, I use the term "emerges" as a surrogate for a long, cyclic process of trial and error, analogous to Le Corbusier's "patient search." In fact, Corb's 1922 Ozenfont House and Studio in Paris provided some inspiration (it also features a second-floor double-height studio with mezzanine and corner windows facing north and east); as did the idea of using a proportional system based on the golden section. Yet the design was not motivated by "authenticity" or even stylistic consistency: for example, the compositional potential of juxtaposing the "modern" addition with the "traditional" existing house was carefully exploited, while the modernist obsession with metal strip windows gave way to energy-efficient and inexpensive vinyl replacement windows.

Le Corbusier's Ozenfant House and Studio, Paris, 1922 (left) served as inspiration for the addition design (right). Photos by J. Ochshorn.

Function as "superego"

East elevation

Thus, the logic of function was reexamined, not as something to be mined for its expressive potential, but rather as a discipline providing a set of geometric constraints for the building's formal relationships while also acting as a kind of "superego," constantly on the lookout for gratuitous, needlessly complex, or counterproductive ideas. Once grounded within this discipline, the addition's idiosyncratic formal qualities were developed and refined within a critical context informed in many ways by my ambivalent attitude towards what might be termed architectural propriety. This manifests itself primarily in the use of materials, products, and systems that—although absolutely rational in terms of their low cost and excellent performance—can also be seen as challenging class-based expectations of appropriateness: the use of cheap vinyl replacement windows and fiber-cement siding panels; interior stairs made from recycled scaffolding planks; exterior stair treads and stringers made from ordinary pressure-treated lumber. Yet in each of these examples opposite and contradictory sensibilities come into play, characterized by unexpected refinement of detail and proportion.

North elevation showing addition and existing house

Functional zones

Diagram shows three parallel zones of addition

I apply construction adhesive to floor joists

The addition itself is organized within three parallel zones: A 3-foot wide transitional zone connects the addition to the house, just under the eave of the existing roof. This zone contains a stair to a new 2nd-floor studio, along with two closets and a bathroom. The central zone consists of a family room and entry on the ground floor, a double-height studio (with mezzanine) on the second floor, and a roof deck above. A third parallel zone cantilevers out from the main space and contains a stair to the mezzanine, leaving the central studio space entirely unobstructed. Finally, an exterior stair leads from the mezzanine level to a roof deck. The addition is connected to the original house only at the existing kitchen door, providing a new entry space for the original house, while simultaneously allowing the new spaces in the addition to function independently.

Functional innovations

While the addition employs conventional wood framing (2x6 studs; 2x10 joists; etc.), I developed several technical innovations for this project: some make construction possible for a single worker (i.e., me) without much construction experience; some minimize cost by combining materials in unusual ways; and some improve the environmental or structural performance of the various systems. Several of these innovations are briefly summarized below:

• Roof ventilation: Innovative use was made of conventional gable vents in the parapet walls, connected through vertical and horizontal plenums to soffit vents below the gutter, in order to promote convective circulation of air between the roof membrane and insulation.
• Exterior stair truss: I designed a continuous, stainless-steel truss to be literally screwed through the completed exterior wall of the addition in order to provide structural support for a conventional wood stair leading from the mezzanine level to the roof deck.
• Top-down construction: 4'x8' fiber-cement siding panels were installed from the top down, using the scaffolding already put in place for installation of sheathing and air barrier. After each horizontal layer of siding was installed and painted, the corresponding level of scaffolding was removed, and the next lower level of siding put into place. In this manner, waterproofing was maintained at all times, and the final level of siding, at grade, was installed with the scaffolding entirely removed, ready for recycling.
• Window design: Instead of using so-called "new construction" windows, I used vinyl "replacement" windows, set into innovative 1x pine window frames integrated directly into the 2x6 wall framing.
• Sustainable design practices informed the design process in numerous ways. Scaffolding lumber was re-used for interior stair treads and shelving while temporary stair treads were re-used as permanent risers; the recycling of such construction material minimized construction waste. Double doors were salvaged and reused from a Cornell University concert hall being renovated. Cast-iron radiators, saved from a prior renovation of the existing house, were reinstalled in the addition. Energy-efficient and innovative details were used for foundation insulation and roof ventilation. Gratuitous finishes were avoided, reducing the expenditure of energy and the depletion of non-renewable resources: examples include the use of a ground-floor slab-on-grade sealed only with a a zero-V.O.C. sodium silicate-based compound; or the use of unfinished plywood sheathing boards, required in any case to enable diaphragm action in the stud walls, within the two stair zones where optimal illumination levels were not needed. On the other hand, studio lighting, consisting of low-cost plastic incandescent fixtures with reflective white ceilings and walls, achieved excellent illuminance levels using less than 1.0 watt per square foot of floor area. Efficient direct-vent furnaces were installed in the two large spaces. The addition conforms to New York State's Energy Conservation Construction Code.

Additional images

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last updated: 12 June 2018

© 2006 – 2018 J. Ochshorn. All rights reserved. Republishing material on this web site, whether in print or on another web site, in whole or in part, is not permitted without advance permission of the author. Photos of studio and roof deck by Susan Schwartz; all others on this page by J. Ochshorn.