Gaffney House Dining Room

For their weekend home in Sharon, Connecticut, architect Lynn Gaffney and her husband, Bill Backus, filled their natural wood "shack" with eBay finds and classic modern design pieces.

It’s not unusual for New Yorkers to have problems with their neighbors; after all, many a co-op brawl has started over a little late-night noise. But it is rare for the downtown crowd to have a beef with a pack of rowdy beavers—which is exactly the situation in which architect Lynn Gaffney and her husband, financial portfolio manager Bill Backus, found themselves recently at their weekend home in the tiny town of Sharon, Connecticut (population: 2,968). The beavers, who reside in the swamp behind Backus and Gaffney’s house, generally keep a low profile, but every so often let loose with a torrent of logs and sticks that block all the nearby drainage pipes, making a watery mess of local roads and forcing residents to haul away the detritus.

It’s rather comical to imagine a pair of self-described intrepid Manhattanites battling beavers, but such was the couple’s intent when they decided to build in Sharon. Disgusted with the high price of property and the politics of the co-op market, Gaffney and Backus opted to remain urban renters and spend their money building a 2,000-square-foot house outside the city, in an area so rural "it didn’t even have the remotest feel of suburbia," Gaffney says. They settled on an eight-and-a-half-acre plot that backs up against wetlands, a two-hour drive from their apartment.

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Gaffney, principal of New York–based firm Lynn Gaffney Architect (lga), prefers to design in an agricultural vernacular merged with sustainable elements, when given a chance. "I like the simplicity of shed-like buildings, the way they’re stripped down to bare necessities," explains Gaffney. "I’m also intrigued by barns and their sense of functionality combined with the layers of vertical storage spaces." The combination of a rural location with compliant clients (Backus’s only design request of his wife was that the house have a washer and dryer) seemed like the perfect such opportunity.

In order to stay within her desired aesthetic and also be green, Gaffney chose to build with structural insulated panels, or SIPs, as they’re commonly known. The panels are essentially pieces of dense foam insulation sandwiched between two thin layers of engineered wood, and they’re used in place of traditional stud and frame construction. The handy thing about SIPs, and the reason they’re so popular with sustainable proponents, is that they’re prefabricated off-site, manufactured with a minimum of waste since they’re cut to order, and then quickly assembled on-site.

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Instead of buying new furniture, Backus went in favor of re-use and outfitted the house almost entirely with eBay finds, with the exception of the Flos Arco floor lamp by Castiglioni and the Random light by Moooi. "I spent months online looking for the right pieces," he says. "It was fun sourcing the furniture myself."

Instead of buying new furniture, Backus went in favor of re-use and outfitted the house almost entirely with eBay finds, with the exception of the Flos Arco floor lamp by Castiglioni and the Random light by Moooi. "I spent months online looking for the right pieces," he says. "It was fun sourcing the furniture myself."


The multitude of windows along with the glass partitions in the house bring in enough natural light that there’s rarely any need for electrical lighting before nightfall.

The multitude of windows along with the glass partitions in the house bring in enough natural light that there’s rarely any need for electrical lighting before nightfall.

The Tom Vac chair is by Ron Arad for Vitra.

The Tom Vac chair is by Ron Arad for Vitra.

The double-height living area features unfinished plywood cladding.

The double-height living area features unfinished plywood cladding.

In the guest bathroom, penny tiles were chosen "because they’re incredibly economical, utilitarian, and we liked their kitschy feel," explains Gaffney.

In the guest bathroom, penny tiles were chosen "because they’re incredibly economical, utilitarian, and we liked their kitschy feel," explains Gaffney.

Fir stair treads are cantilevered off the wall with a custom steel support to create an industrial look.

Fir stair treads are cantilevered off the wall with a custom steel support to create an industrial look.

To avoid constant maintenance issues—after all, "durability is part of sustainability," Gaffney states—the roof is clad in standing seam metal and the siding is composite plastic decking, rather than easily weathered wood.

To avoid constant maintenance issues—after all, "durability is part of sustainability," Gaffney states—the roof is clad in standing seam metal and the siding is composite plastic decking, rather than easily weathered wood.

Protruding SIP fins on the exterior collude with an overhang to minimize the sun's rays in summer, an important consideration when thinking about heating and cooling the tall, open living areas.

Protruding SIP fins on the exterior collude with an overhang to minimize the sun's rays in summer, an important consideration when thinking about heating and cooling the tall, open living areas.

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Amara Holstein
A former editor at Dwell, Amara recently left the glamorous life of a magazine staffer to pursue her freelance writing dream. She has written for Sunset, Wallpaper*, the Architect’s Newspaper, VIA, and Apartment Therapy.

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