The Water House explores our relationship to water, a primary element that interacts with our shelters in a variety of ways.  Essential to life, we invite water into our homes since human living patterns require frequent access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and keeping our bodies and implements clean.  Conversely, an age old challenge of building is to shelter us from water by keeping rain and moisture out.  The Water House takes inspiration from intermittent islands created by the cycle of tides, the refuge provided by moated castles and most especially beaver lodges where the management of water levels is a key to creating shelter.

At the Water House, a dam creates a pond landscape that intertwines with the house. The dam outlet can be adjusted to alter the pond water level to create an obstacle to entering or to enhance connections and access. 

The house is long and low echoing the horizontality of the pond.  In contrast, steeply angled roofs, inspired by butterflies on a puddle, collect then eject rain water at concentrating scuppers to form waterfalls that vary in intensity with the storm event. 

The house and a network of causeways bridge across a series of level islands.  Subtle variations in the levels allow small changes to the pond surface elevation to greatly alter the character of the house landscape.  At the highest water level the house floor is one foot above and the landscaped islands are 6 inches above the pond water level.  An entry causeway extends out from the shore crossing an entry lawn, punctuated by a single large American Sycamore tree, to arrive at the house entry pavilion.  A pivoting bridge at the causeway can be opened to deny access.

The long central corridor extends through the house with rooms and chimney masses grouped loosely along it to vary the corridor experience. The corridor opens to a water garden courtyard opposite the living room.  The water court is set one inch above the high pond level so that a slight breeze can blow water over the paved surfaces and the garden seems to be sited at the level of the pond blurring the transition between land and water.  The water garden has several pools filled with water plants and one clear pool with a shallow bottom for wading in and to feature a particularly dramatic splash when the roof of the adjacent study ejects rainwater into the space.

Additional landscaped islands and paved terraces serve the living room, the kitchen, a den and three bedrooms.  The line of the house culminates at a long garden extending out into the pond.  A lateral walkway leads south to an island terrace with a covered pavilion fronting on a swimming hole.

When the water level is lowered 18 inches a network of walkways is revealed allowing access to the house from all sides of the pond and to surrounding landscape features including wetland areas, informal islands planted with wetland tree species and a gridded grove of Bald Cypress trees. The water level at the water court and the swimming hole is always held at the pond’s high water level.

Another foot of drop widens the entry causeway allowing vehicles to pull up to the entry lawn.  Three feet of drop reveals wetland flats and a continuous plateau around the house ideal for a large event or house maintenance access.  

The pond system helps mediate environmental extremes creating a more sustainable water course for this site and the sites downstream. Refill water can also be circulated from underground aquifers with extraction and injection pumps.  The pond can hold back water and recharge the aquifer in wet times as well as draw from that reserve when it is dry. At times of severe drought the pond can be emptied to provide water to downstream neighbors uncovering the pond’s bottom topography and a round water hole where fish can retreat.