The Lantern House is a modest single family residence situated on a tight urban lot in Charleston, South Carolina. Typical of sites in the Charleston urban core, this lot is quite narrow and deep with it’s narrow dimension abutting the street.
The front of the home faces south toward the harsh southern sun, and the home incorporates shading techniques of the neighboring vernacular ‘Charleston Singles’. Like its neighbors, it presents piazzas along the west facade shading the interior from midday and afternoon sun. The piazza toward the street is allowed to wrap the corner; shading the front quadrant of the home, incorporating an intricate tensile fabric shading system, and extending the outdoor living space into a semi private area still open to the natural coastal breezes. The home incorporates other passive ventilation techniques with a central open core allowing for the stack effect to move hot air up and out of its clearstory windows.

The home’s fabric tensile shading system harkens back to the sailing history and tradition of Charleston as well as its modern connection to the ever evolving sport of competitive sailing. It is a home that starts with our past, but reaches out to our future.