1902 | 2005
Manteo, North Carolina
Interior renovations of old residential structures always prove to be challenging and are often void of a true concept. Converted from a rental duplex back to a single-family home, this budget-minded design/build renovation for a small family, originally built in 1902 and renovated in 2005, attempts to take the difficult task of restoring an old farmhouse back to its initial character while providing a fresh overlay; it is a celebration of the year of creation and re-creation of the house that deletes the years in between. The 103 years of dropped acoustical ceiling grids, 2x4 fluorescent lights, nine different cheap carpets, luan paneling, vinyl flooring and tapered trim have been removed, unearthing the original beaded board walls and ceilings as well as wood flooring. To accentuate the past, the walls and ceilings are painted antique white and the floors ebonized; it is a black and white landscape that documents a rehabilitated past. Contrasting the monochromatic remembrance of the original wooden house are various modern insertions that act as contextual interventions within the preserved environment. Using abstractions of rural and farmhouse vernacular, the new additions are expressed by reinterpreted forms, materials, color and hardware thus providing a contextually modern expression. And to further celebrate the separation of time between the new and old construction, gaps and slippages are a detail used repetitively throughout the project to provide a reminder of the years deleted.
