Modern Low-Country House Wins AIA/NC Honor Award

Raleigh, NC, October 04, 2007 --(PR.com)-- A modern, environmentally sensitive house overlooking South Carolina’s picturesque Shem Creek, designed by Frank Harmon Architect in Raleigh, received an Honor Award from North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/NC) during the 207 Design and Chapter Awards presented September 15 at the Annual Design Conference in New Bern.

According to Harmon, the owner client wanted an open, airy house with an abundance of windows for viewing the creek. However, the best view of the creek was on the western elevation, where the sun would bake the house on hot summer afternoons. And the house is in a hurricane zone, so the windows, as well as the structure itself, had to withstand up to 150-mph winds and accompanying debris.

According to Harmon, the low-country house, which was featured in both Architecture Record and Waterfront Homes & Design this summer, required “a 21st-century solution to 400-year-old problems.”

For strength, the house is built of steel and laminated-wood (Southern yellow pine) framing that rests on matt-concrete footings. The shed roof is one large, simple plane that shelters the house from the area’s torrential rains. Carports are dramatically cantilevered to shelter the owner’s cars and, in the off-season, boat.

The house’s long, thin shape allows each room to have windows and porches overlooking the water. The operable windows create natural cross-ventilation for the interior, which features locally available Southern yellow pine paneling.

To capitalize on the view of the creek, a large glass wall fronts the southwest side of the house. To protect the house from excessive summer heat yet allow cooling breezes into the house, and to protect the glass from extreme weather, Harmon designed a series of 10 screens, hinged above the porch, constructed of hand-fabricated metal frames, which house perforated-metal panels that protect the house during any season. In their horizontal (open) position, they shade the house in spring and fall. In their vertical (closed) position, they create a shaded porch, allow cooling breezes to enter the house, and keep damaging debris out. Made of hot-dip galvanized steel to resist wind-borne, corrosive salt, the 800-pound screens were also designed and installed to allow a single person to lift and balance them easily as they are moved from one position to another.

After approaching this house from the long, sandy drive under a canopy of moss-draped live oaks, and climbing the gentle ramp up to the house, the view of the salt marsh – replete with blue herons, ibis, and water lilies – unfolds “like elements in a delicate Japanese painting,” Harmon said. Yet the rock-solid structure and metal screens demonstrate “the graceful strength needed to survive in a beautiful, if sometimes brutal, coastal landscape and climate.”

Judges for the 2007 Design Awards were Peter Kuttner, FAIA, Cambridge Seven Associates; Jane Weinzafel, FAIA, Leers Weinzapfel Associates; Jeff Stein, AIA, Boston Architectural College; and Elizabeth Padjen, FAIA, ArchitectureBoston founding editor.

For more information on Frank Harmon, visit http://www.frankharmon.com. For more information on the 2007 AIA/NC Design Awards, visit http://www.aianc.org.

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