Black House

This is a house whose exterior is made of 80% post-consumer recycled plastic and rubber.

This project was an adaptive reuse of a quintessentially ‘humble’ ranch home dating back from the post-war era. What it lacks in ‘architectural significance’ is made up by its location. It benefits by an advantageous location on the site that would have been lost had we decided to demolish and rebuild.

 Our clients came to us with a desire to retain its small scale. This was in sharp contrast to the neighborhood’s growing extravagance.  In choosing to carefully expand and add we created a private courtyard, an indoor-outdoor dining space, and an art studio. All these spaces are simultaneously linked and hemmed in by a glazed vestibule that also serves as the entrance. We have come to recognize the success of this simple design in forming zones of privacy that in turn allow for multiple uses within the confines of a small area.

Continuing with the undisruptive ethos of this project what we developed was a house whose exterior skin is an assembly of Black Rubber and Recycled Plastic (80% Post Consumer).   This material (HDPE) is most commonly used for park benches and boat docks and has the added advantage of durability and minimal maintenance.

 The roof and exterior walls of the existing ranch were first sheathed with black rubber roofing (EPDM) over which we carefully secured a horizontal screen of the HDPE. The rubber serves to seal the pervious existing structure from the elements and the screen forms a protective barrier for the rubber skin while also doubling as a sunshade to mitigate heat gain on the black surface.