Total Design
A Finely Crafted Home Serves as Work Studio and Laboratory for a Designer who Creates Everything from Furniture to Shelter
by David Sleeper
photos by James Burde
JAMES BURDE was tired of building
miniature buildings for other.'"architects. It had been a
lucrative, decade-long occupation, one that had taken him from
the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, where he studied art
history, architecture, and design at Hampshire and Smith
Colleges, to London, Paris, and Jerusalem. He had made a career
of creating highly detailed architectural models for wonderful
projects including historic buildings, museums, and large civic
buildings, but he had never built a structure at a scale of one
- in other words, at life size. So he and his wife, Kay, came
to Vermont to do just that.
WALKING THROUGH THE BUILDING IS LIKE IMMERSING YOURSELF IN A WORK OF ART.
James had several
goals in mind as he began designing a home to fit neatly onto the
30-acre wooded parcel in Essex, which has a stunning view of
Camel's Hump to the southeast. First, unlike many practicing
architects (James is not a licensed architect, but earned his
undergraduate degree in architecture and art history, followed by
an internship and significant professional experience working in
architecture firms), he wanted the experience of building a
structure himself. "It's a sad fact among architects and
designers," he says, "and one that engenders conflict
between these professions and the buildings trades, that few have
actually ever built anything." He addressed that issue by
insisting that all the subcontractors - framers and carpenters,
plumbers, electricians, HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air
conditioning) contractors, and masons - put him on their teams so
that he could learn on the job. By the time he was done he knew
"the true meaning of 16d nails and the actual size and stock
lengths of dimensional lumber." Among those particularly
helpful to him during his unique home-school project were
Goodridge Lumber in Albany, Vermont, among the state's best
sources of eastern white cedar; Sheldon Slate Products, of
Monson, Maine, a fine source of slate quarried in Fair Haven,
Vermont; Bob Sham of Vermont Custom Sheet Metal, and Queen City
Steel, both of whom supplied the metal work in the house; Wilfred
E. Verchereau & Son, of Essex Junction, masters in the craft
of stucco construction; and various members of Building for
Social Responsibility, a trade group of building professionals
headquartered in Hinesburg.
His second overall goal was to build an
environmentally friendly house that practices "sustainable
design" -commonly defined as a structure that provides for
our immediate needs without endangering our future existence. He
accomplished that, among other ways, by carefully choosing
construction materials, many of which originate locally; by
landscaping with native vegetation; and by using energy-saving
devices and technologies such as compact fluorescent lighting, a
sophisticated heat-recovery ventilating system, a central vac
which exhausts to the outside, and a European-made appliance that
combines a washer and dryer into one unit. The finished house has
been certified as a "5-Star Home" by Energy Rated Homes
of Vermont, which means it is very chary when it comes to heating
and electricity needs, even in Vermont's severe northern climate.
For example, if all the compact fluorescent lights were turned
on, which could easily light the entire house, it would be
equivalent to burning one 200-watt incandescent bulb. Over the
past two years, the house's average total energy cost has been $1
,470 annually.
Finally, James wanted his home to serve as a
laboratory for what's known as "total design," which is
the practice, championed by Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, of
designing everything within a living space - furniture,
stairways, doors, color schemes, and finish woodwork, as well as
the structure of the house itself. In order to fully appreciate
the extent to which James succeeded at his total design, you need
to experience the house first hand. Walking through the building
is like immersing yourself in a work of art.
FROM THE OUTSIDE, the house presents the
appearance of Vermont vernacular architecture, featuring
traditional materials and lines. Built into the side of a hill,
the 16-by-36-foot rectangle has a steeply pitched metal roof and
an enclosed staircase tacked onto one side and finished on the
outside with white stucco. But once you enter the front door
(which includes a stained-glass window with rectangular panes
designed by James), a completely different feeling pervades.
Inside, you find the warmth of naturally finished wood, clean
lines, and soaring spaces: European Modern meets Far Eastern Zen.
The living room exemplifies James's total
design philosophy. My eye is drawn first to the specially built
windows (reminiscent of the front-door design) which frame a
perfect Zen view of Camel's Hump, and then upward 27 feet to the
peak of the roof, finished with white cedar in a
tongue-and-groove herringbone pattern (which I begin to realize
repeats itself inside and outside the house). My gaze is helped
upward by an 18-foot-tall bookshelf with an attached rolling
ladder, all of it constructed by James from off-the-shelf
aluminum I-beams, brass rollers, and oak treads. The aluminum
components of the ladder are painted "Country Redwood"
from Benjamin Moore, as are other accents throughout the house
such as metal picture rails, triangular steel braces, and even
the round metal bolts holding the house's wooden frame together.
As I tour the rest of the 1,
700-square-foot-house (which includes a kitchen, comfortable
dining room/family room with a woodstove, master bedroom, home
office overlooking the living room, and third-floor loft), it
becomes increasingly clear how much thought has gone into the
details. Each time I remark on yet another repetitive design
feature - scalloped curves in the woodwork, slate window sills
and kitchen counters, brass doorknobs and hand rails - James
beams like a proud father. He is obviously proud, too, of the
furniture and other building components on display, prototypes
which emerged from his design studio: kitchen cabinets; light
fixtures; flat storage files for his architectural drawings which
function also as a built-in seat; a magnificent work table and
computer desk; a bookshelf which is also a banister; a sliding
door opening to a three-season porch with a glass-block floor;
and a wood-and-glass surround which completely encloses the top
of a clawfoot bathtub, thus making showers an aesthetic as well
as practical possibility.
"Design is a fine art that needs slow
cultivation," James says, "and this building is always
changing." It's clear from the glint in his eye that this
designer/craftsman clearly enjoys what Le Corbusier might call a
"model for living in," built at a scale of one.
For more information about this and other projects, contact James Burde, Teiki- Techture, P.O. Box 272, Jericho, VT 05465-0272; 802-899-2497. The trade organization Building for Social Responsibility can be reached at RR 1, Box 1953, Hinesburg, VT 05401.
All text and images for this article were taken from Vermont Magazine.