Since the last ice age, a large boulder balances on the highest point of a clearing in an abundant quarry on the southern slopes of the Catskill Mountains. We built a fully sustainable climate positive house around this rock which serves as a physical center and source of inspiration. The Rock’n’House is both an observatory to live in and a solar power plant producing more energy than it will ever consume in its 100+ year lifespan.

The shape of the house is derived from Polaris, the course of the sun, and my family’s desire to live in harmony with nature. Everything we design connects individuals to each other, to themselves and to the cosmos.

We oriented the house on its site in relationship to the celestial bodies above and the earth below. The conical roof, clad in photovoltaic shingles, is optimized to collect energy from the rays of the sun and rainwater to feed a swimming pond. The house is built with sustainably harvested mass timber beams, columns and CLT panels radiating towards the center of the rock. Curved and radial interior walls are plastered in a highly breathable natural clay that sparkles as sunlight bounces off its mineral content. The handrail of a staircase double-functions as a naked eye observatory of the North Star.

Raw bluestone bedrock is exposed to touch in the sunken living room. Drinking water and geothermal heating and cooling fluid arise from deep within the earth. Triple glass frames the poised boulder in the courtyard, creating a picturesque composition with the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires to the East and Overlook Mountain to the Northwest.