Rutherford, New Jersey USA
The Passaic River House designed by Messana O’Rorke accomplices an impressive feat. Its minimal yet rigorous architecture manages to be at the same time completely foreign yet perfectly attuned to the surrounding area.
The Passaic River House has been awarded a 2023 Future House Award by Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum Museum for Architecture and Design.
The house is located on the banks of the Passaic River in Riverside, New Jersey. The site has setbacks on four sides, which we used to define and maximize the trapezoidal envelope.
Ostensibly a black, wooden cube hoisted up in the air, this compact home blatantly rebuts the suburban ranch house aesthetic. The exterior cedar cladding is blackened by shou sugi ban, the Japanese charring technique that makes the wood more durable and resistant.
The structure is raised eight feet because the riverfront property is on a floodplain. Single-pane windows puncture the façade and are positioned to afford privacy from the nearby street and neighbors.
The three-bedroom, 1,430-square-foot cabin manifests the power of minimalist architecture with utilitarian functionality.
The use of concrete plinths to elevate the structure is more abstract and volumetric. The cube’s perpendicular walls rise two stories to an angular roofline.
The 12-inch-wide pedestals circumscribe the ground area, creating walls that hide a concrete stair leading into the home’s entry vestibule and separating an outdoor deck and entertaining area with a built-in bench and table looking out to the river. A soft grid of earth-and-concrete block paving transitions to the solid-concrete garage floor.
The differently sized windows precisely frame views and bring a sense of volume to the interior, which is heightened by the uniform use of oak plywood paneling and plank floors.
This cabin’s rigorous bearing and design are intended to pose questions concerning the conventional ranch house vernacular, the need to design for climate resilience, and how to live comfortably within smaller spaces.
Project: Passaic River House
Architects: Messana O’Rorke
Lead Architects: Brian Messana and Toby O’Rorke
Design Team: Brian Messana, Toby O’Rorke, Viktor Nassli, Juan Espinosa and Hanna Buja
Client: Chuck and Meg Olivo
Photographers: Messana O’Rorke