Cohen Davis Residence / Wittehaus

Architects: Wittehaus
Area: 2,157 ft²
Year: 2024
Photography: Jordan Powers
Lead Architect: Toby Witte
Builder: Mike Masto and Ryan Dennison, Spoke & Hammer
Custom Cabinetry: Katie Schindler, Fine Grit
Structural Engineering: IDE Structural Engineers
Solar Panel System: Southern Energy Management
Smart Home: Todd Smith, Audio Advice
Landscape Architect: Ric Solow, Solow Design Group
Landscaping: Tim Springer, Greenscapes Horticultural Services
Materials: Black Roman brick, white oak, reclaimed wood, concrete, metal roof and wall cladding, smooth stucco, cementitious board siding, high-performance glazing
Client: Deb and John Cohen-Davis
City: Charlotte
Country: USA

The Cohen Davis Residence in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Wittehaus is a 2,157-square-foot home organized around courtyards, controlled daylight, and connections between interior and exterior spaces. Rather than relying on conventional corridors, the plan allows rooms to unfold directly into one another, while a broad horizontal roof plane organizes the home’s more private and service-oriented spaces, extending toward the carport. A taller sloped volume establishes the primary living spaces and introduces greater openness into the center of the house. Black Roman-brick walls define a sequence of semi-enclosed outdoor spaces and mediate views toward the neighborhood, while white oak ceilings extend across interior and exterior zones. The residence incorporates a range of environmental strategies, including a rooftop solar array, continuous insulation, a continuous air barrier, high-performance windows, radiant floor heating, solar-gain planning, fresh-air intake, reclaimed wood, and carbon-capture concrete. The project reports a HERS Index of 17, reflecting its emphasis on energy performance alongside spatial efficiency.

Creativity lies between wonder and rigor.
Interview with Toby Witte of Wittehaus

The Cohen Davis Residence responds to a constrained Charlotte site by treating the relationship between privacy and openness as the central architectural problem. Designed by Toby Witte for Deb and John Cohen-Davis, who purchased the property in 2022, the house draws on midcentury modern principles while developing a contemporary interpretation suited to its semi-urban context. The unusual orientation of southern light toward the street required the architects to find a way to admit daylight without compromising seclusion. Their response was to place elongated, freestanding black Roman-brick walls across the property, using them to frame courtyards, screen views, and establish a sequence of thresholds between the public edge and the more private portions of the home. The arrangement allows daylight to penetrate deeper into the plan while giving outdoor spaces a defined architectural character.

The composition is organized by two contrasting volumes. A seemingly floating flat roof stretches from the street toward the rear garden, creating a strong horizontal element that contains the more private and service-oriented parts of the program. Intersecting it is a taller, sloped volume that houses the principal living areas and brings additional light and volume to the heart of the residence. The plan eliminates hallways, allowing circulation to occur through the rooms themselves and making each transition part of the domestic experience. This approach is particularly apparent in the living room, where an accordion-style glazed wall can retract completely toward the southern patio. With the opening extended, the room becomes an open-air pavilion, while a concealed motorized insect screen allows the occupants to maintain ventilation without fully exposing the interior. In the primary bathroom, a glazed shower opens visually toward the landscape, with weathered wood, horizontal slatted screening, and vegetation providing privacy.

Material continuity reinforces the connection between the architectural volumes and their surrounding courtyards. White oak ceilings and roof surfaces continue seamlessly between the interior and exterior, while a restrained palette of contrasting textures is created by black Roman brick, reclaimed wood, concrete, metal cladding, stucco, and cementitious board. The kitchen is seamlessly integrated into the main living area, featuring custom white cabinetry that is designed to blend in with the surrounding architecture. Fine Grit, led by Katie Schindler, produced the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry as well as built-ins and concealed storage throughout the residence. The exposed concrete floor incorporates hydronic radiant heating, giving the slab a practical thermal function while retaining its tactile and visual qualities. The homeowners were closely involved in selecting finishes, fixtures, appliances, colors, furniture, and artwork, adding a personal layer to the otherwise controlled architectural composition.

Environmental performance is embedded within the home’s architectural and mechanical systems. The rooftop solar installation comprises 20 Tesla photovoltaic panels supported by a SolarEdge inverter and monitoring system, while the building envelope uses continuous insulation and a continuous air barrier to limit energy loss. High-performance windows are positioned in relation to the roof’s shading strategy, allowing the house to benefit from winter solar gain while reducing unwanted summer heat. Ductwork is contained within conditioned space, and a fresh-air intake contributes to indoor environmental quality. Above the southern patio, operable louvers integrated into the roof structure allow the occupants to regulate daylight and shade through changing seasons. Reclaimed wood cladding, carbon-capture concrete, tree conservation, and the combination of passive solar considerations with active energy systems further extend the project’s environmental agenda.

The landscape and construction details complete an approach in which outdoor space is treated as an integral part of the home’s spatial organization. Three courtyard patios create intermediate zones between enclosed rooms and the garden, while planting and screening reinforce the privacy established by the masonry walls. Landscape architect Ric Solow and landscaper Tim Springer contributed to this layered relationship between architecture and vegetation, while builders Mike Masto and Ryan Dennison of Spoke & Hammer translated the project’s material and construction details into the finished house. The resulting residence demonstrates how a compact footprint can support a generous range of experiences when space is organized through light, thresholds, courtyards, and carefully controlled connections. Rather than equating domestic luxury with greater floor area, the project places emphasis on environmental comfort, material quality, spatial continuity, and access to the landscape, offering a contemporary Charlotte residence in which efficiency and architectural richness operate together.