Interior-Exterior Integration 

Much like the entire icehouse rehabilitation project which evolved over years and involved many, many discrete steps and sub-steps (a remarkably large scale project despite being a remarkably small scale building), the interior-exterior integration is a plot that unfolded over many months. Lots of little transformation coalescing into a large and highly impactful transformation. This daily dispatch seeks to aggregate the phases, to coalesce them into a “big picture” that has eluded me in previous posts.

One of the most notable changes in the icehouse rehab is a considerable increase in apertures, transparency, and porosity. With an eye to more seamlessly integrating the interior and exterior experience while reducing the potentially confining ambience of such a small (approximately 18’ x 30’) structure, we have introduced lots of glass.

Windows and doors blur boundaries between the enclosed environment and the exterior views, landscape, hardscape, decks and courtyard.(Source: The Art of Thresholds)

But this change didn’t happen overnight. It was slow won, and long anticipated. Patience across months of cloistered carpentry, the icehouse interior divorced from the exterior lawns and views and natural light.

We’ve been finalizing a timely transition… in the icehouse rehab. Framed but temporarily concealed apertures have been cut out and transformed into doorways and windows…

This view is evolving as I type. Stone walls and stone steps will define the levels and the transitions between them. In the near ground, a lawn will yield to a stone bordered area of plantings that will bridge the lower elevation outside the deck to the upper elevation where the volleyball and croquet court will once again be located. (Source: When Apertures Become Windows)

Let’s take a look inside by way of previous reports.

I’m pleased to announce fenestrated facades on all four sides!

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To refresh your memory, this is a notable threshold because we inverted the typical sequence (install windows and doors first, then install cladding). In other words, our atypical workflow pushed out potential hiccups to the eleventh hour…

We flip-flopped windows/doors and siding. That’s right, in order to maintain an ambitious timetable… [we installed] exterior and interior cladding prior to installing the windows. This involved some unintuitive workarounds, reverse engineering an otherwise routine process. So… “windowing” the icehouse has been a unique challenge. (Source: Windowing)

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Fenestrated facades are elevations with apertures — door(s) and/or window(s) — that transform the porosity and transparency of the domain.

By strategically introducing apertures and maximizing transparency in this small structure we’re endeavoring to dilate the living experience beyond the finite building envelope, to challenge the confines of walls and roof, and when possible and esthetically judicious, to improve porosity with abundant new fenestration, dynamic interior-exterior interplay, subtle but impactful landscaping changes (including a new deck) that will work in concert to amplify the breathability of the interior and temptingly invite insiders outside. (Source: Gable End Window in West Elevation)

The fenestrated facades of Rosslyn’s icehouse define a new aesthetic chapter… it’s still a little premature to evaluate whether or not we’ve accomplished the lofty goals I listed above. But we can begin to appreciate the dramatic increase in natural light, illuminating the interior of the icehouse.

Natural light and views… a seamless interplay of interior and exterior living area. So long anticipated, these fenestrated facades are beginning to bridge the envisioned and the actual. Within weeks I’ll know if we’ve realized the lofty ambition of transforming this small, dark, confined environment into a more ample, permeable, and voluminous experience. (Source: Fenestrated Facades)

The following is excerpted from a poem, “Pondering Porosity & Permeability“, in my post, “Porosity & Permeability“.

... dance, song, and debate
don’t distill or define
permeability’s
seamless interweave,
porosity’s power
to integrate inner
sanctum sanctorums
with outer otherness. 
Visual and spatial, 
spatial and visual
rhyme, relationships rhyme,
environment within
environment without
dance and sing and debate.
(Source: "Pondering Porosity & Permeability")

Let’s fast forward to the various views as they emerged, a gradual metamorphosis…

[From the loft window,] we can appreciate the natural light entering through the east elevation gable window framing, and we can try to imagine the daybreak view of Lake Champlain, warm sunlight illuminating the north elevation of the main house as it rises up into the summer sky.

A new perspective is emerging as Hroth frames my future office window (from the icehouse loft). Looking east (actually southeast in this photo), this will be my morning view. Panning to the left 10 to 15° the view will be filtered through the enormous American Linden (basswood) tree and across the upper lawn, through the ancient ginkgo tree and across the front lawn to Lake Champlain. (Source: Loft Office View)

Holes in walls. Such rudimentary changes to a building envelope. And yet such profound transformation!

By strategically introducing apertures and maximizing transparency in this small structure we’re endeavoring to dilate the living experience beyond the finite building envelope, to challenge the confines of walls and roof, and when possible and esthetically judicious, to improve porosity with abundant new fenestration, dynamic interior-exterior interplay, subtle but impactful landscaping changes (including a new deck) that will work in concert to amplify the breathability of the interior and temptingly invite insiders outside. (Source: Gable End Window in West Elevation)

[Little by little we’re glimpsing] hints at the future porosity of the this space… (Source: East Elevation Gable Window)

Now let’s rotate 180° and shift out perspective toward the west.

Because this view is hidden from passersby [i.e. not part of the historic within the public view shed, visible from the street] we were able to modify the facade to showcase Rosslyn’s magnificent sunset views. The afternoon and early evening will be stunning from this hidden oasis. (Source: Icehouse West Elevation Rendering)

Fast forward a little to when the gable windows were incorporated…

The west elevation of Rosslyn’s icehouse is undergoing the most consequential transformation of all four facades. From clapboard, clapboard, clapboard (except for the second story access door) and minimalist-but-classic barn vernacular architecture, to a veritable wall of glass at ground level and a picturesque gable end window above, the metamorphosis is a sweeping reimagination of an environment often disregarded (perhaps simply overlooked) en route to the vegetable gardens, orchard, back meadows, etc.

[…]

Framing in the gable end window that will open up breathtaking sunset views from within… By strategically introducing apertures and maximizing transparency in this small structure we’re endeavoring to dilate the living experience beyond the finite building envelope, to challenge the confines of walls and roof, and when possible and esthetically judicious, to improve porosity with abundant new fenestration, dynamic interior-exterior interplay, subtle but impactful landscaping changes (including a new deck) that will work in concert to amplify the breathability of the interior and temptingly invite insiders outside. (Source: Gable End Window in West Elevation)

While the west and east elevations enjoy the lion’s share of the sunrise-to-sunset daily drama, the north and south facades were totally transformed as well…

It sure is fun to see the three double hung windows emerging on the north elevation of the icehouse. And the three fixies above. And the three fixies on the south elevation. And the freshened up window aperture in the southeast corner, opposite the new bathroom in the small anteroom (once framing, well, and everything else, is complete.)

I’m talking about window apertures. And the transparency that all of the new windows (and doors) will bring to Rosslyn’s icehouse. The transformation will be dramatic!

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When everything is said and done… three small [fixed] window apertures [in the north and south facades] will echo those in the carriage barn stables visible from the west and northwest, adding a handsome cohesion between the two buildings. And they will augment the transparency that is fundamental to this repurposing project. Just as the west wall is transforming from a solid first story and a small service opening on the second story (ostensibly to help pack in the ice?), to a window-filled, view-filled gable end, we’ve integrated a constellation of windows in the northwest section of the north elevation, dramatically shifting the transparency of the interior.

[…]

Although windows will not be installed until spring, we have the ability in the short term (before exterior paneling is installed) to preview the inside-outside blurring — or would that be, outside-inside blurring?!?! — that we’re hoping to accomplish by introducing so many apertures into this small building. (Source: Window Apertures)

Even the small details matter.

It’s only a bathroom window, but it’s 1/8 of the fenestration on this elevation AND this aperture allows the bathroom to enjoy natural light for the first time in many months. (Source: Bathroom Window Installed)

Now that we’ve spanned much of the plot arc of the icehouse’s interior-exterior integration, let’s XXX

Much of my recent Rosslyn rumination focuses on opening up. Yielding, even inviting in. Looking, speaking, and reaching out. Endeavoring to integrate the interior and the exterior…

For now I offer you an snapshot from April 11, 2020 — deep in the pandemic when Susan and I began resuscitating a dream of rehabilitating the icehouse into a handsome, relevant, useful, and practical lifestyle space…

In the image above the icehouse’s west elevation (totally) and north elevation (mostly) are solid, unfenestrated walls. (Source: Every Wall is a Door)

Since 2006 one of the guiding principles we’ve brought to our rehabilitation of Rosslyn has been opening up. Reconceiving spaces with greater porosity and transparency. Integrating interior living environments with the exterior.

Every wall is a door. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The west wall is transforming from a solid first story and a small service opening on the second story (ostensibly to help pack in the ice?), to a window-filled, view-filled gable end… (Source:Window Apertures)

2022 and 2023 were a period of opening up the icehouse. Literally and figuratively.

By this past summer the icehouse interior and exterior were one seamless and cohesively integrated living, working, and entertaining environment.

We’ve been finalizing a timely transition from porosity to fenestration in the icehouse rehab. Framed but temporarily concealed apertures have been cut out and transformed into doorways and windows. Jamb extensions, sills, and trims — carpentry confections that conjoin and integrate discrete elements into a cohesive architectural whole — are finally complete inside the icehouse. (Source: When Apertures Become Windows)

By this past summer the icehouse interior and exterior were one seamless and cohesively integrated living, working, and entertaining environment.

Thanks for joining me in this mostly visual meditation on opening up — literally and figuratively — as a precept for rehabilitation (and storytelling). An incomplete thought, still coming into focus, moving me toward greater clarity about how and why to share our story. Porosity. Permeability. Transparency. Cohesive integration of interior and exterior… Lots of natural light! (Source: Opening Up)

I offered these thoughts back in Nov 12, 2024, well after completion of the icehouse rehab. Today they ring even truer as I become accustomed to the ebb and flow of light and seasons in the icehouse. The interior-exterior integration may well be the most successful aspect of this project as Jen Cypress’s photos so adeptly capture.

Although these next two images are less focused on the exterior, both offer a refreshing change to the hermetic and dark space that existed from construction in the 1800s until just a few years ago.

I close with two final thoughts, the first in prose.

Lifting my gaze from the here to the beyond, looking out… I absorb slowly the textured layers of morning. (Source: Textured Layers of Morning)

And the second in poetry.

Filigree Fenestration Haiku
Sunlight filtered through
door, window panes, grille, and gate:
textured melody.
(Source: Filigree Fenestration)

From fantasy to plan to construction to today, interior-exterior integration has been one of the most important guiding principles in the icehouse rehabilitation. Today I can gratefully acknowledge that reality surpasses my my most ambitious anticipation.