ARO-designed Bucks County home brings together art and landscape
A new-build ‘forever' home for two collectors balances internal art and design displays with views of the green, agrarian landscape of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a modest architectural composition by ARO
A new house in the leafy expanses of Pennsylvania has been designed as the ‘forever' home of a pair of avid art and design collectors. The architecture practice behind it, New York-based studio Architecture Research Office (ARO), looked for its design to ‘frame' the precious objects within the Bucks County home and wider context, by creating a minimalist composition of flat glazed and opaque surfaces.
The clients are two former Knoll executives with considerable collections of Americana, as well as classic furniture pieces from the legendary American design manufacturer. In order to place the collectibles centre stage, the architects created a main circulation axis for the home, which doubles as a linear gallery to show weathervanes. There, clerestory windows ensure optimal natural daylight for viewing.
The house's larger spaces – the open-plan living-dining room, for example – feature sculpture, set in strategic positions that allows it to breathe. The varied displays also include Joseph Heinrich chafing dishes; Roseville Pottery in pine cone patterns; and engraved trophies.
The residence spans a generous 4,250 sq ft in a low, relatively modest architectural composition of vertical and horizontal planes across a single level. This makes connections with the outside easy and immediate through floor-to-ceiling openings onto a surrounding garden, decked terraces and swimming pool area at the rear. It also allows ‘panoramic views of the surrounding meadow and fields', say the team.
A restrained material and colour palette works to highlight the design-led interiors and emphasises the collection inside, and nature outside. Walls are a combination of clean white plaster and exposed locally quarried stone (which also features in the main fireplace), and flooring is predominantly timber. Walnut and stained ash cabinetry adds a touch of warmth.
A flat roof with a pronounced overhang on the impressively glass-enclosed living space pavilion further accentuates the architecture's connection with the land, adding weight and anchoring it to its site, while tempting the eye to travel outwards towards the agrarian landscape of Bucks County.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Maude’s Brâncuși-inspired sex toys go on display in a new Paris exhibition
Maude’s design-led vibrators are now on display at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as part of ‘Private Lives: From the Bedroom to Social Media’. Brand founder Éva Goicochea talks to Wallpaper* about partnering with the museum and opening up cultural conversations around sex
By India Birgitta Jarvis Published
-
‘I was captivated by the idea of merging two iconic brands’: Nigo on his 1990s-inspired collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz
Unveiled at Moncler’s ‘The City of Genius’ event in Shanghai this past weekend, Japanese fashion designer Nigo unpacks his three-way collaboration with Moncler and Mercedes-Benz, which includes a play on the G-Class alongside a fashion collection in his eclectic style
By Jack Moss Published
-
Cathay Pacific’s new business class Aria Suites take flight
Cathay Pacific raises the bar for business-class travel with the launch of the much-anticipated Aria Suites
By Lauren Ho Published
-
First look: step inside 144 Vanderbilt, Tankhouse and SO-IL’s new Brooklyn project
The first finished duplex inside Tankhouse and SO-IL’s 144 Vanderbilt in Fort Greene is a hyper-local design gallery curated by Brooklyn studio General Assembly
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Tour Ray's Seagram Building HQ, an ode to art and modernism in New York City
Real estate venture Ray’s Seagram Building HQ in New York is a homage to corporate modernism
By Diana Budds Published
-
Populus by Studio Gang, the ‘first carbon positive hotel in the US’ takes root in Denver
Populus by Studio Gang opens in Denver, offering a hotel with a distinctive, organic façade and strong sustainability credentials
By Siska Lyssens Published
-
This Californian home offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living
Gardens & Villas, a home in La Quinta, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
First look inside 62 Reade Street, a clock factory turned family home
62 Reade Street, a boutique New York residential project by architects ODA, unveils its first apartment interior, styled courtesy of Hovey Design
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Paul Rudolph at The Met: ‘from Christmas lights to megastructures’
‘Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph’ opens at the Met in New York, exploring the modernist master's work through a feast of an exhibition
By Stephanie Murg Published
-
Jewel Box is a Californian project of small scale and big impact
Jewel Box by Red Dot Studio is the reimagining of a Californian 20th-century gem through a creative addition
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Germane Barnes exhibition explores notions of classical architecture and identity
Germane Barnes exhibition 'Columnar Disorder' opens at the Art Institute of Chicago
By Ellie Stathaki Published