Collection by Christopher Hall
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The Floating Farmhouse’s semitransparent addition has a roofline that matches the pitch of the original 1820s farmhouse. A porch, tucked under the side eaves, is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property. Ikea loungers are illuminated from the interior by commercial gymnasium lights repurposed as pendant lamps.
The original home occupies a prominent hilltop overlooking Silicon Valley and faces into the pristine rolling hills of a nature preserve at the end of the house receiving the new addition. Taking cues from dominant natural elements of the surrounding densely wooded hillside – boulders, bark, and leaves – SaA created a two-story addition with the visual weight needed to anchor the long axis of the extended original house. Against this, the architects balanced steel-framed stair treads and awnings that cantilever from minimal structural supports as if leaves from a slender branch.
“We came up with this design out of a desire to have a bit of a beacon in the hills,” says Charlap Hyman & Herrero principal Andre Herrero. He designed a petite structure of glass, steel, and terrazzo—plus a well-placed Noguchi Akari lamp—in Hollywood for Steven Alper, a retired dentist who wanted a home office with a distinct point of view.
The Seattle-based SHED Architecture + Design worked with builder Joe Gates Construction to preserve the brick shell, while making room in the 2182-square-foot plan for two complete bedroom suites upstairs, an open main level, and a finished the basement. To the left is a partially-buried, concrete, 380-square-foot “boat bunker,” which acts as a windbreak and gear storage.
SHED converted the side door into the front door, adding a new entry sequence with a patio, landscaping, stairs, and a metal awning to protect the porch. Wide stairs and a patio lead down to new sliding glass door in the basement, which now has utility spaces and a media room/office. Many of the original window openings were kept on this façade and given new Andersen E-Series units. Two smaller openings were bricked in.
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