Weaver's Cabin

A simple house and studio, set in the woods of Greater New Haven County, Connecticut. The program is to house an artist-in-residence half the year and a scholar the remainder of the time. To serve the differing needs of the two occupants from day to day, swiveling panels make a wall switch from opaque to permeable at the touch of a hand. A cloth drop-ceiling allows light to permeate through skylights without distracting the resident, just as do clerestory and crypto-porticus windows, for a suffusion of light despite optional views. Simple furniture features a filleted-corner motif throughout the house, echoing the softness of the padded inner walls, each panel of which contains a suite of insulation against cold, fire, and the muffled sounds of a highway cut not far off from the forest preserve. All this protection is wrapped in a canvas interior face that can be drawn on, replaced, tacked with artworks for viewing, or caressed.