Maria Ibañez de Sendadiano and Todd Rouhe had been camping in the Catskill Mountains of New York with their daughters, Inez and Luz, for many years, getting fresh air away from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where they live and run their firm, IdS/R Architecture. The couple do both commercial and residential work, and they’re members of Common Room, a collective based in Brussels and New York that publishes books and designs exhibition spaces for arts organizations. Their love of the wilderness and their growing interest in building with sustainable technologies converged as they began thinking about swapping their sleeping bags for a permanent second home outside the city.

At first, they considered fixing up one of the old stone houses that line the area’s main highway. But they realized that even after a complete rehab, they’d likely end up with a small, dark space beset by the constant hum of traffic. “It wouldn’t be an expression of our intentions as architects,” says Maria. “It would be like an ill-fitting suit.” They also were intrigued by a 34-acre site on top of a mountain, but the cost of purchasing the property, building a road in, and digging a well was prohibitive.

About four years ago, they discovered a three-acre lot hidden on a hillside in the hamlet of Mount Tremper, New York. Located inside Catskill Park and part of the watershed supplying New York City, it had streams flowing through it and a large variety of trees—shagbark hickory, oak, birch, pine, beech, ash, hemlock. “It just felt like a healthy plot of land,” says Maria.

Their goal to preserve as many trees as possible while leaving the land and water flows undisturbed was coupled with their desire to build a house that consumed minimal energy—perhaps even giving back to the grid. After surveying the land and constructing a small studio on the site, they chose a plot toward the top of the slope, away from the streams, where they could place the septic field. They cleared a spot with a preponderance of ash trees, which were already threatened by an infestation of emerald ash borers in the state, and reluctantly sacrificed a large white pine that was in danger of toppling.

The structure is in the style of a long-house, set on a steel platform to minimize disruption of the water flow and oriented to capture and expel heat using passive strategies. Subcontractors assembled it using structural insulated panels in less than two weeks, then sealed it airtight with triple-insulated windows and double-insulated sliding-glass doors.

“In projects like this, we just jump-start nature’s processes. If you plant it, the birds and the bugs and the bees will come.” - Karin Ursula, landscape architect

Twenty-four solar panels were installed about 50 feet from the house. The walls are covered in one-inch-thick Siberian larch inside and out, and underfoot heating radiates from hot water in PEX pipes embedded in plywood beneath cement board and quarry tile. Bookend lofts hold a sleeping area for the girls and a sitting room; like the downstairs bedrooms, they’re insulated to reduce noise and increase privacy. The white pine tree became the flooring for the lofts.

Landscape designer Karin Ursula replanted disturbed areas with native species like New York and hay-scented fern and Appalachian and bristle-leaf sedge grasses. Fieldstone found on the property became rustic stone steps connecting the house and the studio. “They wanted it to look, over the years, like natural succession—to ease the scars of the place,” Ursula says. “Because in order to build anything, you do have to destroy and cut down trees.”

The family members have taken differently to the rural environment. Luz, 17, is an observer and collector, gathering blooming weeds, woodpecker shavings, and seed pods, while Inez, 15, isn’t convinced she likes spending her time off from school outside the city. Todd gets absorbed in the rhythm of fabrication and maintenance, building tables and shelves with Maria and cutting firewood from trees cleared during construction, while Maria focuses on changes in light and thermal performance.

For the couple, the structure is as much an experiment in sustainable building as it is a home. “It feels like a project that’s going to lead to another project,” says Todd. “In fact, it would be disappointing if this was where our efforts and research stopped.”

Project Credits:

Architect: IdS/R Architecture

Landscape Architect: Karin Ursula Landscapes

Construction: Dwyer Contracting Inc.

Structural Engineer: Ross Dalland, P.E.

Civil Engineer: Joe Boek

Structural Steel Fabricators: Benson Steel Fabricators

Structural Insulated Paneling: Foard Panel Inc.

Appears In

A House in the Catskills Hovers Over the Landscape