New Hudson Valley Houses

“Poignantly existential, and as such, it is houses that havebeen some of the most important architectural works.”
—John Hejduk

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”

- Henry David Thoreau

The organization Scenic Hudson describes the Hudson Valleyas “inspirational beauty and health” and has a core mission to preserve andenhance the region for generations to come.  The region is a diverselandscape composed of the Catskill Mountains, Hudson Highlands, fertile rollingfarmland, and small historic towns. Historically and culturally, it hasplayed a significant role by attracting and inspiring artists and writers withits dramatic beauty.

The house, as an architectural project, is the fertileground where new ideas are tested. Its small scale and simple program, hapticdetails, and devoted idealistic clients, allow for a pure expression rarelyafforded in large projects. Every time I go to Los Angeles, my first visitis to the Schindler House on Kings Road in West Hollywood (now the MAK Center).As Schindler’s own home it is a modest building, at just around 3,000 squarefeet, but it has great intensity. Its heavy and rough tilt up concrete wallssupport worn lightweight redwood clerestory windows, translucent paper likescrims open into intimate garden courtyards, and custom furniture and millworkembed the space. The house was an experiment in what Schindler called “SpaceArchitecture”, a manifesto into spatial interiority, light, climate, and theinterior’s relationship to the natural environment. The house is small, denselypacked with ideas, and firmly tied to its situation in the California sun.

New Hudson Valley Houses, merges the idealismsof experimental small-scale domestic space, with that of land preservationand stewardship. Ten recently designed homes by fivearchitects, are presented solely through models and drawings (no photos)that invite viewers into the design process. The houses share four idealaspirations and are each unique to their situation.

1. Maximum preservation of landscape:

On large rural sites these houses aspire to guard andpreserve the natural landscapes of the Hudson Valley in the spirit of theorganization Scenic Hudson.

2. Individuation of expression:

The possibility of independent experimental actions,expressive of freedom of individual

thought, are counter to the repetitive dictates of consumerculture.

3. Material / Detail / Scale:

Often underestimated, domestic architecture at this scale isa critical platform for experimenting with the core principles of architecture:light, proportion, material detailing, and scale.

4. Ecological architecture embedded inlandscape:

The Hudson Valley’s landscape—shaped by ancient glaciers andvaried in its geography, offers a testing ground for new and experimentalrelationships between architecture and nature. Houses aspire to be free offossil fuel, deploying varying strategies of solar, geothermal, and greenroofs respectively. 

This exhibition is part one of a multi-part series that will continuouslyexplore domestic space in the Hudson Valley.

‍