Local man designs home to ‘work with nature’

BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Nick Bryson stands in front of his Upper Freehold home. He recycled the wood foundation from Fort Dix to create a home that doesn’t need a source of heat to keep it warm. Nick Bryson doesn’t need to worry as much as most people when oil prices soar, as he has no furnace in his home and no heating bill.

Bryson knew he wanted to build a passive solar home when he first purchased his 15-acre property in Upper Freehold in 1979. He designed and built the home himself, with the help of a few hired hands.

He soon schooled himself on the sun’s positions in the sky during the various seasons, and on heat loss and convection.

His unique design involved a “house within a house,” which Bryson said is similar to the way a thermos bottle works.

The large glass panes on his southern-facing walls allow for the sun’s rays to warm the space between the outer and inner walls. The warmer air then rises and circulates around the space between the two ceilings and two walls, keeping the interior between about 50 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It gets hotter, holds it and gives it back,” Bryson said of the space between the walls.

During the colder months, Bryson and his partner, Linda Zarnett, compensate by using their wood-burning stove in the living room. Bryson cuts the wood himself from dead trees that fall in his back yard, and burns it in the stove “until it turns to coal.” Then he can shut it down, allowing the thermostatically controlled blower to provide warm air.

The secret to getting the most heat out of it, Bryson said, is that “you have to think like a fire.”

Zarnett admits she is comfortable for most of the year but has trouble during the winter months.

“The house would be perfect, except for the coldest weeks of the year,” she said.

Bryson is more tolerant.

“When it’s a little colder in the morning, I just put on another sweater,” he said.

Bryson’s background in theater production and design helped him tackle the large project, which he made sure included as much recycled material as possible.

While designing the home, he discovered the federal government was selling off its World War I barracks at Fort Dix to anyone willing to tear down the structures himself.

With roughly $600, a crow bar and a lot of hard labor, Bryson had the makings for his new home using premium yellow pine from the barracks he took down by hand.

Bryson, who has lived in India, Egypt, Britain and Canada, also built his own workshop in 1980 as a separate building on his Upper Freehold lot, where he worked to help develop the English market for Gerriets, a German company that makes theater curtains.

Bryson’s company designed the curtains for the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, as well as opera houses in numerous other countries.

“Just name any big opera house, and we probably made the curtains,” he said.

Also a published author, Bryson who has written books on the technical aspects of theater design and construction.

By the end of 1980, he and his family moved into the home, which has a two-story living area and bedrooms on either end. The bathrooms and sauna Bryson built are located at the northern side of the home.

The floors are all hardwood, and the decor consists of items from Bryson’s overseas travel destinations and unique pieces from the nearby New Egypt auction he frequents.

“Maybe part of [my desire to acquire unique items] is being in theater production,” Bryson said. “You have to go out and try to make things work with what you’ve got.”

One of his favorite conversation pieces — a lime-green, 1950s dentist’s apparatus — is complete with a movable overhead light, a dental drill, a porcelain sink and an accessory tray.

Two others are a Civil War trumpet and an antique wooden pair of ice skates from Holland with leather ankle straps.

Through the years, Bryson’s two grown daughters also contributed to the home’s museum-like ambience. Heather is a sculptor, painter and jeweler, while Marla’s hobby/talent is pottery.

Bryson said he and his daughters have never minded living in a home that has such a variety of temperatures.

“[Other] people are used to having everything at 70 degrees all the time,” he said.

Bryson also said he would like to see some of the newer homes built with energy conservation in mind — even if they do not use alternative heating methods.

“It struck me that the most important thing is to build your house facing south,” Bryson said, noting that it provides a 20-percent reduction in heating needs. “It’s so built into our culture to build [houses] facing the road.”

Bryson admits he is more tolerant than most people of temperature extremes.

“I guess I just like to work with nature,” he said.