Getting Away from it All: 7 Remote Homes

Freed from the constraints of urban architecture, these homes luxuriate in their far away locales.

$In 2007, as eager young architecture students in Trondheim, Norway, Andreas Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad won a competition to renovate a house for under $200,000. Seasoned travelers who had witnessed firsthand “a way of building that made important architecture for a fraction of the price,” as Hanstad puts it, they became disillusioned with their supposedly “tight” budget and with the conventional Western approach to residential architecture. “We wanted to use what we know to make things that have meaning,” says Gjertsen. After raising nearly $100,000, they moved to western Thailand and spent a year designing and building a series of houses, a library, and a bathhouse for orphans along the Thailand-Burma border. “Showing the local community the potential in local resources is a big part of the long-term benefits of projects like this,” says Hanstad.$

In 2007, as eager young architecture students in Trondheim, Norway, Andreas Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad won a competition to renovate a house for under $200,000. Seasoned travelers who had witnessed firsthand “a way of building that made important architecture for a fraction of the price,” as Hanstad puts it, they became disillusioned with their supposedly “tight” budget and with the conventional Western approach to residential architecture. “We wanted to use what we know to make things that have meaning,” says Gjertsen. After raising nearly $100,000, they moved to western Thailand and spent a year designing and building a series of houses, a library, and a bathhouse for orphans along the Thailand-Burma border. “Showing the local community the potential in local resources is a big part of the long-term benefits of projects like this,” says Hanstad.

The house's location on a fire-prone site on the edge of a wooded area posed a challenge for Blue. He used a mix of steel and fire-resistant timber to construct the residence. Another challenge was to "crop out" the neighboring houses so Blue oriented the structure so that it opens to its own garden and views of the forest.

The modular system created by the architects at Resolution: 4 allows them to customize a home’s floor plan by stacking, lining up, and joining factory-built, rectangular modules. This is the largest prefab house the firm has completed to date with eight modules amassing around 4,500 square feet.

Though the Burtons are landscape architects, they took an intentionally hands-off approach to their own land, which is part of the 1,800-acre Long Valley Ranch, a former cattle ranch. “We made very few moves, beyond planting fifty olive trees and some native shrubs and grasses,” says Bill. “We wanted nothing in the landscape to be edible or pretty, nothing to attract animals to the house.” Nevertheless, they’ve spotted plenty of fauna thanks to motion-activated “trail cams” they use to spy on local wildlife. To date they’ve snapped photos of mountain lions, bobcats, wild pigs, and a bear.

A pair of LC2 chairs by Le Corbusier are ideal spots for watching the river down below. The Womb chair by Eero Saarinen is a close second.

Artist's Studio House, Whidbey Island, Washington. Brett Webber, architect, Judy Geist, home owner. © Benjamin Benschneider All rights Reserved. Usage rights may be arranged by contacting WaMu and or Benjamin Benschneider Photography. Email: bbenschneider@comcast.net or phone 206-789-5973