West

Tasked with creating a multi-use guest pavilion on a relatively small Northern California vineyard lot that could also host sit down dinners for up to 60 people, designers at Anderson Architects started by asking the key questions: “Where should it be within the property?” “How much floor area do we need for a 60 person dinner?” “How much volume do we need for a basketball court?” “We also always tell ourselves to look at the landscape first, let it dominate and lead it through. The building took the form of a large Napa Valley barn.

Surrounded by wheat fields on a high-altitude plateau stands a small glass house and a solid, traditional barn. The owners, inspired by Philip Johnson’s Glass House, wanted a refuge that opens up to the prairie and mountains.

“Approached through a forested plateau of ponderosa pine, this residence for a young family is a delicate stripe across the horizon.”

The timber-clad home's natural palette takes cues from the desert landscape.

Studhorse | Olson Kundig

Connect 5 backyard porch at sunset.

Complemented by 5,600 square feet of outdoor space, the enclosed passage opens up to a central courtyard with a bocce court and a saltwater lap pool.

"Pulling the buildings apart allows what is not a big house to feel really big," says architect Jonathan Feldman of the sustainable retirement home he built for a couple in California. "Because of the ways it opens up, it feels much more expansive than it really is."

Exterior at Night

Designed to attract young, tech-savvy city dwellers, the Lodges on Vashon uses virtual registration and check-in and is fitted with handcrafted objects by local island-based artisans.

"The buildings recall the agricultural forms of the local built environment, but as is our nature in our designs, we sought to take that context and evolve it to a more emphatic modern language. We sought to design something that was exquisitely proportioned in a quiet, agricultural way." –Tom Kundig, Design Principal

An overview of the courtyard.