Collection by Bruckman Engineering
New Construction
After much research, the original buff stone pictured was discovered at a quarry in Utah, which had since closed but reopened for the material sourcing for this project, the restoration of Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House. A mason worked there for a year and a half to accurately restore stone, chiseling and cutting blocks precisely in place to create a pleasing mosaic. Tops and bottoms of the stones were cut smooth to sit in horizontal position, allowing the sides and faces to be more organic as Richard Neutra intended.
A supposedly impossible site was the perfect plot for Hale (pictured) and Edmonds, who were searching for some sort of break that would afford them the chance to build their own home. Stilting the house over the steep hill gives them direct access to nature while still being located just a ten-minute drive from downtown Seattle.
The addition references the main house in materiality and function. "We did not want to simply copy the existing elements, so we explored and investigated different levels of faithfulness to the existing structure, from a very near emulation to a much more contemporary approach that would only quote the previous architecture in some key aspects," Grueneisen says.