Project: A Modular Rural Residence
Architects: Scalar Architecture PC
Lead Architects: Julio Salcedo-Fernandez
Team: Team – Julio Salcedo, Yutong Li, Elda Hernandez, Tomas Rodriguez Rivero
Engineers: Westchester Modular Homes
General contractor: Segallas Turnkey Housing
Interior designer: Fawn Galli Interiors and scalar Architecture, PC
Location: Sharon, Massachusetts, United States
Area: 2200 ft2 (1800 sf Interior, 400 sf Exterior)
Year: 2022
Photographs: Miguel De Guzmán & RocÃo Romeo – Imagen Subliminal
Located in the Berkshires mountains and born within the time and budget constraints of the COVID epidemic, ​”Oblong Farm” is a restrained​ ​2200 sf residential structure ​that co-opts ​standard modular off-site construction ​by designing a​ singular gesture responsive to context and environment. Testing the ​manufacturer’s limits for transportation, ​the structure is devised​ by​ two heavily-insulated, 15 x ​60 feet, engineered wooden modules arranged side by side with a third module hinged by a​ large​ yellow spatial void​ -​ the color of the local forsythia plant.
The disposition of ​its ​modules corresponds to a contextual and environmental analysis that privileges mostly in a East / West longitudinal orientation whilst accommodating the southern breezes and blocking the northern and northeastern winter winds from the entrance at ​the large yellow void. ​Both in their scale and non-domestic articulation, the yellow void, and the repetitive cadence of its windows afford a dialogue between residence’s exterior and interior and by extension between it and the nearby farm structures.
On the interior, and again testing the manufacturer’s allowable off-site structural spans, the center 22′ portion of the two modular boxes is exempt from a lower horizontal ceiling as the hinged roof trusses bridge the two modules as envelope and structure. This large connected space becomes the extended family’s hub. The layout also distills the essential components and their connections: A long spatial corridor to the North links all portions of the house to the spatial central hub and the yellow entry porch.
In all, the structure achieves an environmental and contextual responsiveness​ ​by leveraging the structural and sustainable opportunities of a standard off-site fabrication​ and​ by ​the ​minimal means of its orientation and articulation​. But it is the dissonance between the domestic and rural scale and type that afford “Oblong Farm” a singular statement beyond its responsiveness.
