If we think about modern residential hi-rises with their glass cladding nowadays, glass and metal are, budget-wise, the new skin of our urban buildings. Just take a walk in any intensely populated city like New York, for example. In the age of the reality show where architects are addressing people living in a “total exposure” context as a status symbol (see Richard Meier’s Perry Street towers in NYC where, as mentioned by a NY Mag’s “Glass Act” article: “ Tenants embrace the exposure — most of the time — from their sleek, but luxuriously soft, modernist perch”) why should we complain if another glass box is placed in the wildness?

I think the house has an intriguing lightness, transparency
and inventiveness about it, and I also like the way it blends into the
woodland setting with a minimum of impact – Woodstock is located in a
densely forested site.

I actually took the time to link to the architect’s own site, and read with interest his
research into the history of American cabins. Apparently he wanted to
revisit the traditional architectural idiom of the American
country cabin and try to reimagine it with new materials and new
lines, while retaining the original elements of a traditional cabin.
Totally valid and worthwhile. I detect a sardonic note in the
use of the stuffed animal heads in reference to the traditional
hunting cabins. I think he’s succeeded in creating a fairly
compelling reimagining of what a modern country retreat can look like.
As far as materials used, I think his focus was less on that aspect
(which from an eco-impact standpoint merits some calm discussion),
than on a re-conceptualization of the country house, working around a
concept – as far as it is true a modern home with new technologies and
devices it is always able to achieve a greener purpose.

BTW, I think if the readers would try to give each posted project a
fair hearing and weigh its pro’s and con’s, instead of lobbing cynical
and smug denunciations based on a rendering only — and often in that
“greener than thou” false piety — then maybe this site would live up to its
original intended ideals. Sometimes it’s more important to evaluate the intrinsic
value of a concept more than the visual impact of a rendering. Thank you Bridgette
for this posting, I personally found the topic very interesting and obviously
stimulating.

It mentions energy efficent materials?

It also mentions that it connects the interior with nature! Unless it is situated within the remote wilderness i really cannot see the appeal at all.

Anywhere near neighbours and you havbe hardly any privacy.