The house floats out over the hillside, minimizing its impact on the landscape, while taking advantage of surrounding views. The design, which places the primary living spaces on the upper floor, leaves flexibility to add an additional bedroom underneath in the future.
Tom Givone's current weekend abode, nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, is—so far—his capstone project, a synthesis of personal taste, material experimentation, and historically sensitive restoration: a living laboratory for how to bring the vernacular past into the present.
A staircase lined with earthen walls leads from the entrance to the lower-level living areas and courtyard. “Rammed earth has a beautiful texture,” says Simpson. “If you get oblique light across it, tiny shadows form. It’s quite stunning.” The handrail was designed by Nigel and made by English blacksmith Spencer Larcombe; the pendants are by Bruck.
The covered outdoor deck has become the most popular space at the cabin, offering a hybrid of indoor and outdoor.
Nestled in Palm Springs, California, this steel post-and-beam residence—completed in 2018—is the last design by Donald Wexler. Embodying midcentury modern design, the 2,780-square-foot dwelling features floor-to-ceiling windows, an open interior layout, indoor spaces that extend outdoors, and intelligent design features.
One of the pitched roofs shelters a side deck, which has a SwingLab bench.
Scaly Mountain, North Carolina
Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017
The home’s board-and-batten siding is black-stained pine punctuated by Jeld-Wen windows.
Scaly Mountain, North Carolina
Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017
A kitchen was situated in a cozy niche off the towering great room, and outfitted with blue shaker-style cabinetry and custom tile work created by the husband and wife.
Galvalume zinc-coated metal, a local building material, is used throughout the area on corn granaries and barn roofs.
Limestone quarried just 30 minutes from the property was used for the fireplace and exterior stonework.
Although the property is mostly wooded, the homeowners lease part of the land to a neighbor who grows soy beans and corn. This allows the homeowners to see firsthand rural Wisconsin life.
Floor plan of the Patton New Century House by Giulietti Schouten Weber Architects
Looking toward the entrance from the residential wing of the house, which is built "like a bridge
The house is clad in Siberian larch and has a standing-seam Galvalume roof. Landscape architect Karin Ursula used native plantings to help the land recover from construction. The gravel put down in lieu of new soil will gradually fill in with plants as leaves decompose and produce a layer of soil.
The steel platform enabled the architects to site the building on a slope without digging a deep foundation.
Top 10 Black Gable Homes of 2020: A dramatic take on an archetypal shape, these pitch-roofed residences cut a striking figure.
The gable roof and L-shaped structure add a buffer against the sound of winds blowing at up to 45 miles per hour. “You don’t hear the outside,” says Ravi.
The mezzanine is fenced by slats of whitewashed pine, and acts as the children’s playroom and hangout space.
Appliances are hidden behind white panelling in the kitchen. A built-in nook in the kitchen entrance creates a niche to drop your things and disconnect from the road.
The white walls, concrete floors, and wood detailing are a neutral combination that will age well. “The clients wanted something timeless,” says Handa.
In the kitchen, a concrete Caesarstone countertop echoes the flooring material; the slatted pine mezzanine is a nod to the ceiling finish. “Everything is referencing something else,” says Armstrong.
The parents’ bedroom is intentionally small, with a custom storage unit framing a giant window. “It makes the views feel that much bigger,” says Handa.
Light oak panels by Finsa clad both the kitchen cabinetry and the built-in units that appear in the living room and entryway. "We used natural materials where we could, but we were also mindful of keeping high-touch surfaces durable," explains Anne-Marie Armstrong, co-principal of AAmp Studio.
"You look down to the water, and you know you’ve arrived somewhere and escaped the world behind you," says architect Ravi Handa.
The large sliding doors in the common area open to the courtyard to bring the outside in.
The custom steel trellis fabricated by Curate Homes and Argonaut Doors mediates solar heat gain inside, and activates the courtyard space outside with changing shadow patterns.
The courtyard frames the home’s main entrance, which sits within a custom steel-and-Douglas fir window system. The combination entry/dining area features a vintage Saarinen table with a Douglas fir Herman Miller top, set with Cleo Chairs by Dims and Petit Standard Chairs from Hay.
The 12-by-18-foot interior courtyard is clad in garapa hardwood and capped with a 1.5-ton steel shade structure. Legge was inspired by the southern vernacular form of the dogtrot house, which features a breezeway through the center to encourage natural ventilation.
The house is oriented north-south, with the broad side of the structure facing east-west. This guarantees not only gorgeous views of the sunset, but also minimizes wind exposure.
On the other side of the porch is the guest suite.
The screened-in porch leads into an open great one on one half of the structure.
“The design for the house emerged from walking the property. We imagined that as we climbed up from the beach, we’d see little peeks of our home from behind the trees,” says Brad Horn, architect and resident.
The front door is painted in Webster Green by Benjamin Moore.
A playful mixture of antiques and mid-century furnishings adds personality to the white-box interior of a cottage.
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