Lakewood House by Centerbrook Architects and Planners

Lakewood House is a rustic, yet contemporary residence located in the northeastern United States.

Centerbrook Architects and Planners designed this house in 2008.

The property features an 8,436 square foot house with an additional 1,125 square foot guest house.

This rustic house for a couple with three grown children and a large extended family is nestled in a northeast forest with lake views. Connected shed roofs aim at the water and the sun, providing deep overhangs to shade porches with tall columns that support a solar screen of indigenous logs. These rhythmically placed natural shades invite the sun’s warming winter rays, but keep the house cool in summer. The first floor flows seamlessly into the outdoors and onto a sitting porch through folding glass walls that open from side to side, merging interior and exterior into one great living space.

Lakewood House was published in New England Homes in 2011 and received a Design Award from AIA Connecticut. It will be including in an upcoming book, “Twenty-First Century Homes.”

Inside, the main house is united by an arcing two-story hall that doubles as a grand entry. Lined with walls made from local stones at the first floor, it has a catwalk balcony above leading to bedrooms and a studio. The hall serves as the main street for the house, connecting the garage and service rooms in the west with the kitchen and finally the living room at the east.

The house collects the sun’s heat through the full height windows behind the porches and stores it in the masses of masonry walls and the chimney. Full-depth icynene insulation and tight wood-framed windows further minimize energy needs.

A closed-loop geothermal system and a super-efficient Russian wood stove heat the house. Hydronic radiant heat in the principal living areas is particularly effective in the high spaces, putting the heat at the living level where it is sensed, thus lowering the required water temperature and energy use. Multiple zones and the house’s programmable thermostats also minimize energy.”