Sleeve House: A Marvel of Sustainable Architecture

Adam Dayem's Award-Winning Design Combines Aesthetics and Sustainability

The Sleeve House is conceived as two elongated volumes, a smaller inner volume sleeved into a larger outer volume, sitting on a cast-in-place concrete base. This design creates two distinct types of interior spaces: the more public spaces of the house, such as the entry gallery, dining, and living areas, are located between the inner and outer volumes, while the more private spaces, including the bedrooms, bathrooms, and study, are housed within the inner volume.

What sets the Sleeve House apart is its unique exterior. Both the inner and outer volumes are wrapped with a charred wood skin, a traditional Japanese process that leaves wood blackened and highly resistant to weather and rot. Boards of varying thickness and depth are placed flat and on-end to give the facades depth, pattern, and texture. This approach not only emphasizes the purity of the sleeved volumes but also references the volumetric simplicity of weathered barns in the region.

The house is built on an exposed cast-in-place concrete base that forms the walls, steps, and floors of the lower level. The floors and steps contain radiant heat elements, and together with the walls, they create a large thermal mass that significantly increases heating and cooling efficiency. Other energy-efficient features include solar power with battery backup, a heat recovery ventilator, triple-pane glazing, water and sewer self-sufficiency, very low air infiltration, and native plant landscaping. These features keep the home’s CO2 usage at approximately 1 metric ton per year.

Designed as a weekend and vacation home for art-collecting urban dwellers with a love of Hudson Valley landscapes, the Sleeve House offers large expanses of glass that frame views of the Catskill and Taconic mountain ranges. Large interior walls and concrete pedestals support the installation and display of various types of artwork, providing unique spatial experiences for its inhabitants while offering comfortable, livable domestic spaces.

The design of the Sleeve House was a challenging endeavor. The main challenge was to develop a contemporary house for a highly sophisticated design sensibility, but at the same time reference the historical character of the Hudson Valley. The tilt of the building creates a contemporary design language through a sense of dynamism, yet the simplicity of volume and rough textured facades reference historical barns in the Hudson Valley.

This truly unique home was designed by noted architect and scholar Adam Dayem and recently won second place in the American-Architects U.S. Building of the Year competition. The sustainably sourced charred wood facade gives the house a rough, weathered texture, a contemporary reinterpretation of old barns in the Hudson Valley. This Design was awarded Golden in A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2018, a testament to its outstanding and trendsetting creation that reflects the designer's prodigy and wisdom.