Heavy Metal

Project Details

Project Description

2012 RADA
Custom / More Than 3,000 Square Feet / Grand


Architect Matthew Hufft’s marching orders were to design a house that reflects the client’s family business—making industrial scales out of sheet metal. The low-slung structure, clad in cold-rolled sheet metal, fulfills that request, but Hufft, AIA, LEED AP, took the concept a step farther. To some of the glass façades he applied 4-foot-by-10-foot steel panels, each custom-perforated in response to solar gain and privacy needs. Some are installed horizontally as a sun visor. “Each panel has a perforation pattern based on its location,” Hufft says. “The house completely transforms from morning to evening.”

Those double skins inspired another svelte move. Fluorescent strips were inserted between the metal panels and the glass wall, so that the interiors can be brightened from the outside. “When you turn on all the lights, the house glows,” Hufft says. Inside, he made a minimalist kitchen out of metal panels that were blackened and clear-coated to give them a rich patina. Throughout, locally sourced walnut adds warmth. And in fair weather, large sliding doors pocket into walls, opening almost the entire house to the wooded land.

The judges applauded the overall effect. “The perforation pattern adds subtlety,” one noted. “It’s not trying too hard.”