Project Description
The building site is located in a natural bowl, backed by a high bluff displaying dramatically eroding walls, bounded by hills and arroyos, and oriented to distant mountain views. A glass-walled, pavilion-like core of Living / Dining spaces separate the Children’s Bedroom volume from the Master Bedroom / Kitchen volume. The ceilings of this space sweep up on opposing sides through adjoining porches to open to the sky and embrace the close-up view of the dramatic bluff to the westward rear, and the seemingly endless sky and mountain views to the east. These rooms comprise the soul of the house, engaging it completely with nature. Bedroom volumes are constructed of massive masonry while support spaces are sheathed in weathering steel. Designed to encounter the climatic extremes through a variety of passive design elements (protected glass, thick masonry walls, natural ventilation supplemented by evaporative cooling), the house is fully in tune with the site.