Project Description
2007 RADA
Architectural Design Detail / Merit
Flawlessly executed details such as this house’s wafer-thin roof, delicate Alaskan yellow cedar rainscreen, and translucent walls captured the judges’ attention. So did the heavier, functional insertion of the seismic structural brace, which was expressed as a stucco-clad stairwell. “It’s light and veiled and so well-laced together,” said one judge. “The screen wall is a great move.”
Conceived as four interlocking volumes made of glass, copper, stucco, and wood, the house’s open floor plan and glazed corners were designed to bring in as much of the outside as possible, since encroaching canyon walls limit the amount of direct sunlight that permeates the interior. Anne Fougeron, AIA, had ample time to consider all the angles, given that it took three and a half years and collaboration with 10 consultants to satisfy the extremely restrictive site requirements.
Just how restrictive were those requirements? “We had to hire a red-legged frog consultant, who [slept] on the site to make sure there were none on the grounds,” she says.