Timber House
Timber House is the comprehensive renovation of a 120-year-old, wood-framed townhouse in South Slope, Brooklyn, transformed into a warm, contemporary, and energy-efficient family home.
Within its narrow, 16-foot-wide footprint, the design introduces a flexible new layout, generous daylight, and a strong connection to the garden. Wood takes center stage throughout, bringing warmth and continuity to the interiors while reflecting the project’s commitment to natural materials and thoughtful construction.
Photography by BlueSlateFilms and reBuild Workshop
The Plan
The three-story townhouse was completely reorganized to accommodate contemporary family life within its compact footprint.
Private spaces, including bedrooms and a home office, occupy the lower and upper levels, while the main living, dining, and kitchen areas are brought together on the second-floor parlor level. This arrangement creates a generous, open living space with abundant natural light and a direct visual and functional connection to the rear garden.
The layout responds to the owners’ specific needs while maintaining the flexibility to accommodate changing family arrangements over time.
Timber serves as the project’s defining architectural material, connecting the home’s original wood-frame construction to its contemporary transformation. From new structural framing to hardwood floors, custom white-oak kitchen cabinetry, stairs, railings, doors, and windows, wood introduces a consistent sense of warmth and craftsmanship.
Outside, a cedar deck and fence extend the material palette into the garden, reinforcing the connection between interior and exterior spaces.
The result is a restrained, welcoming interior where natural materials, thoughtful detailing, and carefully organized spaces define the character of the home.
Performance
Timber House combines its architectural transformation with a comprehensive upgrade to the building’s energy performance.
The renovation converted the century-old townhouse into an all-electric home, eliminating natural gas and introducing high-efficiency heat pumps for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water.
A highly insulated, carefully air-sealed building envelope and high-performance windows reduce energy demand while improving year-round comfort. Induction cooking, energy-efficient appliances, and LED lighting further reduce electricity consumption.
A rooftop solar array generates enough electricity to offset the majority of the home’s annual energy use, reducing its reliance on the electrical grid.
Together, these strategies demonstrate how a modest historic townhouse can be transformed into a comfortable, efficient, and low-carbon home without sacrificing architectural quality or warmth.
