The Spring Glen House explores the use of prefabricated building systems (e.g. gas station canopies, storefront glazing) to connect with the unique character of a specific place (an abandoned foothills farm in the southern Catskills).

The contemporary American built environment is dominated by the architecture of merchandizing: prefabricated building systems that speak to us with a familiar voice, creating corporate identities in whatever place we find ourselves. McDonald's and Mobil wave and shout a friendly roadside greeting. Cracker Barrel and Comfort Inn are just a bit more reserved. They all want to be sure we recognize them and know exactly what to expect. So the prefabricated systems from which they are built send the same message: day or night, season to season, sea coast or heartland.

The building systems that make up this architecture of merchandizing not only speak clearly; they fundamentally change the process of building. They are ingenious, efficient and economical. They are manufactured from huge material stockpiles purchased with great buying leverage, fabricated from duplicate parts, and produced from repetitive processes. Once fabricated, they are shipped to prepared sites and assembled in a matter of hours, often in locations too remote for traditional construction practices. Similar systems and approaches now create offices, houses, cars, airplanes and most other built environments.

But just as the process of building has fundamentally changed, so too has the relationship to place. The sameness of the prefabricated systems and processes homogenizes the landscape, blurring, muting and concealing the unique identity of any specific locale. We are eating at Applebee's or shopping at Barnes and Noble or sleeping at The Comfort Inn and it no longer matters where. The food is familiar, the bed identical and the books are the same from Albany to Albuquerque. The genus loci of the place have been replaced by a chain's identity. Local materials and site crafted constructs are replaced by remotely fabricated systems. But, which way is north? Where will the sun rise tomorrow? How does this building touch the earth? Who was here before me and what wisdom did they leave behind? How does this building help me connect with this place and understand how I am a part of it?

The Spring Glen House is being built in the southern foothills of the Catskills, on land that was once a farm. Clearing and brushing reveals stone walls and ledge outcroppings that still organize the 90 acres of rolling hillsides. The south slopes still hold traces of farm roads, orchards and berry fields. Old foundations and historic photographs document a large farm house and even larger barns; two small machinery barns and an ice house remain. The house and perhaps the barns were likely built from 19th century pattern books, another form of prefabricated construction. It is a place now remote with minimal site construction resources available.

The intent is to build a new house in Spring Glen and to connect in fundamental ways to this unique place, to become a part of its physical and cultural topography.

The experiment is to do so with prefabricated systems, remotely manufactured, transported to Spring Glen and assembled on the site.

Using mass produced prefabricated systems to build the Spring Glen House attempts to realize the inherent advantages of economy, fabrication in controlled environments and facilitation of construction in remote locations. Using these systems also asks that they be adapted to atypical conditions and that they interact with their surroundings in new ways. Both the design and building processes must be carefully considered and orchestrated toward these ends.