T h e Z a p f f e l F a r m h o u s e
Paul Zapffel had developed a love for old French farmhouses and dreamt of building his own farmhouse in a beanfield in Trenton.
He wanted a design that, when seen from the road, looked similar to other farm buildings that dot the landscape in this rural area of N.C.
The house and barn are oriented due south, with roofs pitched so that solar panels can be added in the future. Paul's ultimate goal is to turn the surrounding beanfields into vineyards and produce his own homegrown N.C. wine.
The exterior walls are finished inside and out with a plaster colored to match the local "marl" of the road, or the wheat in the fields when it is growing there.
A wood trellis leads you from the harsh sun outside to the shelter of the cool, thick-walled interior.
The exterior walls are built of Hebel block, an aerated concrete block, two withes thick.
Sitting above are exposed trusses and a plywood ceiling.
Held within the heavy exterior walls is an infill of wooden columns, beams, joists, floor planks, and walls.
Throughout the house, the materials and exposed structure are easily "read." We took a straightforward approach to the interior, using simple, off-the-shelf materials such as galvanized pipe rail, pre-fab roof trusses, and exposed fasteners, which also helped to reduce costs. Wherever possible, the structure is also the finish, including the exposed concrete floors with radiant tubing embedded.
We realized Paul's goal of using no drywall by constructing wooden boxes that house the bedrooms and bath. They are built as "houses within a house."
By placing smaller objects within a larger volume, we created a kind of interior landscape within the house.
Paul loved the thick stone walls of European farmhouses he'd seen and wanted a similarly massive feeling in his own house. We decided that Hebel block could provide that, and it had the advantage of being lighter and softer than stone. By making the exterior walls two blocks wide, we achieved a thickness of 24 inches on the first floor and 16 inches on the second.
We were able to carve openings in the soft block as we wished, using simple wood saws. At the stairwell, the sun animates a south-facing wall of sculpted apertures...
washing the the thick walls with light.
Where Paul's painting studio opens to the living room below, the wall thicknesses change. The malleable Hebel block allowed us to resolve this by sculpting a sensuous compound curve at the transition.
A balcony allows Paul to step out from his bedroom into the public realm of the house.
It overlooks the library below, and stairwell and painting studio beyond.
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At the guest bedroom, sheets of polygal are mounted between the roof trusses to form the ceiling, providing acoustical privacy. This transluscent ceiling becomes a lantern when illuminated from within at night, and allows the trusses beyond to be seen during the day.
Punctuated with multiple openings, the building has become a frame through which to view the surrounding landscape,
a surface for the sun to wash,
and a way to capture the ever-changing "paintings" of the outside.
See Construction Diary and Model Photos