An ideal house shelters us in all seasons and keeps us comfortable in all weather situations. Architects around the globe have attempted to build dwellings that could prevail over the severity of the weather conditions and suits all seasons in style. In a similar bid, Seattle-based studio Olson Kundig Architects has completed the Glass Farmhouse project on a rural site in Northeast Oregon on demands of a client. The client had specified a design similar to that of Philip Johnson’s Glass House and one that could co-exist with their existing wooden barn.
The Glass farmhouse, as the name suggests, is made of huge glass panels overlooking vast wheat fields milieu outlined by distant hills in the south. Being in Northeast Oregon the house is built to adapt well to its harsh snowy winters and hot arid summers. In the summers, the overhanging roof and a subtle ledge prevents the stark hot sunrays entering into the house leaving it cooler. Moreover, the well-organized huge glass windows provide superb cross ventilation for the house making air-conditioning redundant. In winters on the other hand, the house benefit from passive solar heat and low angled winter sun due to its structural orientation.
Moreover, being set up on a concrete foundation its base is completely free from any effectual heat absorption or release and thus liberating the house of a major consequence of weather progressions.
Adapting well into its environs, this contemporary edifice adorns the overall scenery and forms a perfect complement to the traditional barn sitting alongside.
Via: Contemporist
