Timber House
A 120-year-old, three-story, historic wood-framed townhouse transformed into a warm, energy-efficient, and environmentally responsible home for modern life.
Photography by BlueSlateFilms and reBuild Workshop
The Plan
The 16-foot-wide framed row house is located in Brooklyn, New York, and was reconfigured for single-family living. Private functions—sleeping areas and a home office—are organized on the lower and upper levels, while the primary living and dining spaces occupy the second-floor parlor level. The interior was tailored to the owners’ specific programmatic needs, yet remains flexible enough to accommodate a variety of future living scenarios. At the parlor level, the design prioritizes daylight and a strong visual and functional connection between indoors and outdoors, taking full advantage of the generous rear yard.
Timber was selected as the primary material for its sustainability, versatility, and inherent warmth. It is used throughout the project, from new structural framing to pre-finished hardwood flooring, custom white-oak kitchen millwork, doors and windows, interior stairs and railings, as well as the exterior cedar fence and deck.
Sustainability
Sustainability was a central driver of the project, with the goal of significantly reducing the home’s environmental footprint. To achieve this, the house was converted to an all-electric system, eliminating natural gas entirely, and paired with a rooftop solar array that supplies the majority of the home’s energy needs throughout the year.
Additional strategies include high-performance windows and a carefully air-sealed, heavily insulated building envelope at the exterior walls and roof. High-efficiency heat-pump systems provide heating, cooling, and domestic hot water, while an induction cooktop, energy-efficient electric appliances, and LED lighting further reduce operational energy demand.
