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Carbon Custom Builders CEO Sam\u00a0Fertik, left, and Further Architecture principal Justin Towart, in April 2026 at a wood-framed home on Indian\u00a0Hill Road\u00a0in Redding, Connecticut, whose owners are building an addition fashioned from poured concrete.<\/p>\n
Alexander Soule\/Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
A design rendering for an addition fashioned from poured concrete for a mid-century modern home on Indian Hill Road in Redding, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Image courtesy Further Architecture<\/p>\n
A curved component fashioned from poured concrete and\u00a0staged for installation at an Indian Hill Road home,\u00a0in April 2026 in Redding, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
Alexander Soule\/Hearst Connecticut Media<\/p>\n
An interior rendering of a poured-concrete addition to a mid-century modern home on Indian Hill Road in Redding, Connecticut, with construction underway in April 2026.<\/p>\n
Image courtesy Further Architecture<\/p>\n
In many Connecticut towns, vistas are dominated by trees and and rocky outcroppings. In\u00a0Redding, an unusual home expansion is underway that brings the two together, as owners tack on a curved concrete addition to their existing house that was built originally with cedar siding.<\/p>\n
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Carbon Custom Builders is currently sculpting the concrete expansion for a house on Indian Hill Road in Redding. Built in 1979 in the mid-century modern design<\/a>, the original house features a cylinder-shaped entry, angular facades and steeply pitched\u00a0roof lines.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Under a Further Architecture design dubbed “The Veil”, the expansion will feature a convex facade curving out toward a big rock formation on the property. The addition will replace a sun room,\u00a0creating a spacious new interior with large windows letting in light\u00a0and outdoor scenery.<\/p>\n “Their desire was to make this their forever home,” said Justin Towart, principal of Further Architecture based in Stratford. “In terms of sustainability, often the most sustainable thing you can do is keep what you have and retrofit it.”<\/p>\n The use of concrete in\u00a0construction dates back to ancient Rome. With the\u00a019th-century invention of reinforced concrete, the material came to be adopted for home construction, starting with the William E. Ward House in Rye Brook, New York. With half\u00a0the “castle” jutting into Greenwich,\u00a0Ward House<\/a>\u00a0is thought to be the oldest reinforced concrete structure in the United States, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.<\/p>\n Concrete as a structural material came into vogue in the 20th century modernist movement in architecture. On both the commercial and residential front, Connecticut is home to some striking examples, to include Hotel Marcel in New Haven<\/a>;\u00a0a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house<\/a> in New Canaan;\u00a0a Rafael\u00a0Vi\u00f1oly project<\/a> in Ridgefield; and Trinkaus House<\/a> in Weston.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n If examples concrete in residential construction are still relatively rare, cement has come to be a common building material in the context of fiber cement siding, which mimics the look of wood or vinyl siding. In U.S. Census Bureau surveys, fiber cement siding trailed only vinyl siding and stucco as the most-common exterior construction material for homes started in 2024, with proponents citing its durability.<\/p>\n