Dror for Eco House

Can a house change each season, like our wardrobe does?
 

A few years after starting my practice, I started thinking about how I might go about designing a building. In my mind’s eye, the word “shelter” conjures up an image of an A-frame house. I considered the advantages of a pitched roof: if its benefits are primarily related to snow and water run-off, it lacks a strategic function in warm weather. For locales with significant seasonal variation, like my home in New York, how could a roof be advantageous year-round?

My interest in transformation, I realized, could be applied to architecture. I decided to create a house with a hydraulic pitched roof, where a simple rotation produces a valuable conversion.

The concept for Eco House consists of two rectangular prisms, with one tilted 90 degrees, mounted on top of the other, and connected by a hydraulic piston at its base on either side. Louvered shutters line the roof’s northwest surface and take advantage of the sun’s positioning: During cooler weather, the roof aids in water run-off and allows sunlight to flood and warm the space through the shutters, creating a greenhouse effect. Pivoted by the mechanical hinge, the A-frame roof converts into a flat top that deflects light from the high summer sun and forms an upper band of ventilation, creating a wind tunnel of fresh air.

Use arrow keys to navigate through projects