Rock Creek House | NADAAA

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Rock Creek House | NADAAA

Information

  • Project Name: Rock Creek House
  • Practice: NADAAA
  • Products: ZANOTTA , Minotti , Buschfeld , Wever & Ducre , Viabizzuno , Wolf , Wolf/Subzero , Agape , Heath Ceramics , Hansgrohe , Cassina , Jackson furniture , Miele , Bulthaup , Asko , Gaggenau , Stone Source , CWKeller and Associates , Element by Tech Lighting , Artek , PP Mobler , Bluthner , RSA , Waupaca , Bovirke , Johannes Hansen , Luminaire , Christensen-Larsen , Fritz Hansen , Karl Mathsson , Ortal , Zeitraum , Nordisk Staal & Møbel Central , Pure Lighting , Molteni , Kerasan , NADAAA , Wetstyle , E15 , Casalis , Erik Jorgensen
  • Completion year: 2015
  • Gross Built up Area: 10,200 sq ft
  • Project Location: Washington D.C.
  • Country: USA
  • Lead Architects/Designer: Nader Tehrani; Katherine Faulkner, AIA
  • Design Team: Sarah Dunbar, Remon Alberts, John Houser, Stephen Saude, Jonathan Palazzolo, Lisa Lostritto, Parke Macdowell, David Richmond, Dane Assmusen, Ghazal Abbasy-Asbagh, Mehdi Alibakhshian, Sina Mesdaghi, Tom Beresford, Dan Gallagher
  • Structural Consultants: SGH
  • Landscape Consultants: Landworks Studio
  • Contractors: Abdo Development
  • Project Manager: Harry Lowd
  • Photo Credits: John Horner
  • Others: Mechanical Engineer: Allied Consulting Engineering, Lighting: Hinson Design Group, AV and Integration: Bethesda Systems, Millwork: CW Keller Associates
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Excerpt: Rock Creek House, designed by NADAAA, is an adaptive re-use project of a 1920’s brick structure that leverages the robustness of the existing structure to capture the attic and basement to double the house’s size while expanding its functions into the landscape. By expanding the areas of glazing, a new architectural order is established in the south – more informal, open, and in dialogue with nature.

Project Description

[Text as submitted by architect] The Rock Creek House is an adaptive re-use project of a 1920’s brick structure that was originally composed of two floors, with a mechanical basement and attic. This adaptation leverages the robustness of the existing structure to capture the attic and basement to double the house’s size while expanding its functions into the landscape.

Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© John Horner
Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© John Horner

While the northern street façade remains relatively intact – formal, insular, and composed– the southern exposure to Rock Creek is made more generous. By expanding the areas of glazing and establishing a more precise relationship between rooms and their respective apertures, a new architectural order is established in the south – more informal, open, and in dialogue with nature.

Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© NADAAA
Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© John Horner

The perimeter structural wall, composed of brick, is reorganized around a north-south bias to mark the axial transition of formal and closed spaces on the north to the informal and exposed spaces of the south. In correspondence to this, internal structural framing runs east-west, connecting the brick party walls while topped with a cladding of laminated plywood that serves the program of the house, running north-south in tandem with the orientation of the house. All elements are incorporated into these laminar striations: stairs, closets, seats, and window frames, among other components. From a solid facade on the North to a transparent and glazed facade to the south, the tectonics of the house reinforces this transformation.

Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© John Horner
Rock Creek House | NADAAA
© John Horner

The most salient spatial intervention is the introduction of two multi-height spaces. The first connects the entry level down to the garden level, with a new living room that extends to the southern landscape. The second vertical space connects the entry to the former attic, now a play loft capped by a skylight. With these two interventions, the once-stratified realms of storage, bedrooms, work areas, and living areas become seamlessly intertwined.

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