David Duncan Livingston
Custom bi-fold doors extend the living room to the concrete logg…
Most people who own a big piece of property build a big house on it. That was the original intent of the owner of this 65-acre estate overlooking California’s Napa Valley. But he inhabited his land bit by bit and along the way discovered that having a series of smaller indoor and outdoor destinations let him enjoy his land more.
Scattered throughout a habitable 10-acre section of the steep, rocky property, the destinations were gradually added as the owner discovered a need and a site for them. “As the land developed the buildings developed with them,” explains architect Mario Aiello. First the large hillside vineyard was planted. That was followed by a guesthouse designed to appear to be a converted barn. Then came a gym on the far edge of the vineyard. Recently, a wine storage facility was added, including a patio where the owner can enjoy a bottle of his own wine with guests.
The experience of moving between the buildings was as important as the buildings themselves, so before the owner built his own house, he installed a long garden between its site and the guesthouse. “That way he didn’t have a weird feeling when the house was new that the landscape was new, too,” Aiello says. Conceived as a spine linking his home with the guesthouse, the walk, as the garden is known, provides a constantly changing vista of the valley below.
Inspired by the farmhouses of Tuscany, the little stone house is only 1,200 square feet, but it is designed to live large, opening up almost completely with oversized bi-fold and French doors to the surrounding concrete terrace that is the home’s true living room. Here are the fireplace and sitting area under a trellis, with the pool and outdoor shower just outside the bedroom doors. A colonnade adjacent to the terrace and near the kitchen serves as an al fresco dining room. It leads to an overlook where the owner can survey his domain, starting with the vineyard that yielded most of the stones used to build the cottage and the retaining walls. From the overlook, the walk leads down to the guest-house, hot tub, and bocci ball court. The court is built to true Italian specs, Aiello says, with a crushed oyster shell surface and perfect drainage.
The owner’s original intent was that the stone cottage would be another guesthouse, but as he wandered the grounds of his estate, he discovered that at least for now he doesn’t need a big house. “His home is really 10 acres,” Aiello says, “and is growing and changing as he lives there.”
Project Credits
Builder: Grassi Construction, Napa, Calif.
Architect: Dahlin Group Architecture Planning, San Ramon, Calif.
Landscape architect: SDA Planning & Design, Napa
Photographer: David Duncan Livingston
Illustrator: Harry Whitver
