We are in Truckee which is just over the Brockway Summit from Lake Tahoe.
It's a high alpine desert environment, pine trees, fur trees, basalt rock.
The site is about two and a half acres and over a hundred mature trees and about 20 heritage trees,
and so our initial walk with the client was how do we save this.
The way we saved it was protecting every tree we could, pushing the house to the
south end of the parcel where the views are and really not touching
the front two acres of the project and leaving 95 percent of the trees.
These clients were very open and the initial brief was very simple, it really drives the way I think
about the project because it's smaller it's not a rambling compound, it's not trying to be a style,
the presentation is a result of the form being earned by living in the place well.
It's not this arbitrary decision-making process that's based on aesthetics,
it's really more than that, the place is very rich on its own and so if you build something
neutral that contrasts with the landscape, it makes the landscape read more so because
you're not trying to become a part of it, you're just trying to be respectful to it.
One of the things you'll find that's different in
this house is the entry is somewhat concealed from view upon approach,
you earn the sequence of arrival by moving parallel to the form associating with it and
so you start to become friends with it.
Once arriving there's a main public space, living dining and kitchen
but you can partition it off from the living area with hidden sliding panels.
We like the idea of making the dining experience special,
many times the kitchen is either messy or noisy and so by closing
that off you can really privatise the dining room area and make it singular.
There's a small family room tucked behind the kitchen along with a hidden office
then the master suite is on the main level, and upstairs there's three ensuite guest rooms.
This house is more of an experience-based atmospheric exercise in form and light.
When we start a house or any architecture we start with the sun and the East-West axis so
this is an elongated rectangle stretched along that East-West axis facing south so
it gets the maximum amount of sun. We do have skylights that wrap down the facade
and onto the face to really allow sun to penetrate deeply into the space and what
they do is break down the box and allow your eye to move vertically upward to the sky.
Not only during the day do they splash the areas with light but at night under
candlelight the stars are visible and it really connects the house to the place.
Every project we build is sustainable and most of our projects are built with
non-flammable materials, so we always start with a palette of
concrete and steel and then we bring in materials that are referencing the site.
We started with a concrete ground form that housed the public areas of the house and
then the support spaces are sheathed with steel angles that reflect the bark texture that really
starts to connect the place to the screen of the trees, it's a repetition of behavior.
I think one of the successes too in the materiality is the collage-like nature of
the way the building is prepared. As you approach the forest is collage-like, there's a dark light
pattern and so the building takes on that same pattern, the black steel recedes like the trunks
the light concrete stands out like the light and then the glass reflects the landscape around it.
I think the main space when the doors are completely open and the space flows
in and out and you feel the breeze and the smells of the forest and the birds
that's probably the most exciting space here for me.
Success for me was seeing the site saved and seeing a very small modest intervention
when you're in it it has that feeling where you know where everything is like a cabin