Haffenden House by PARA Project is a writing studio for two poets in Syracuse, New York. Set within a suburban residential context, the building appears as a pale, almost blank volume between neighbouring houses.
The project references Gianni Pettena’s Ice House from 1972, using whiteness and ambiguity to separate the studio from the ordinary image of the surrounding homes.
Haffenden House
Gianni Pettena, Ice House II, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 1972
The programme is stacked across three levels: a garage and breezeway at ground level, a library and writing space above, and a curved reading room at the top. The section creates a bowl-like division that maximizes indirect light for the writing area while keeping the upper reading room more detached from the outside context.
The exterior is wrapped in a translucent silicone-impregnated fabric skin. It filters daylight into the studio while blurring the visual connection to the suburbs, giving the interior a quiet, concentrated atmosphere.
The rear facade includes a large square opening, with an interior curtain that allows the owners to adjust privacy when needed.
A bathtub was one of the clients’ early requests. It turns bathing into part of the studio’s ritual of reflection, reading, and writing.
Photos: Nathan Rader / PARA Project.
Peter Dark
Anna Lohan
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