Outpost

"When you grow up in the Palouse or you spend time in the high desert, you learn very quickly how insignificant your place in that larger landscape is. To this day, I think that influences virtually every decision I make about architecture in its context." - Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Design Principal.

Set in the remote, harsh high desert of Idaho, Outpost is an artist’s live/work studio and sculpture garden. The building’s compactness restricts site impact and reinforces the desire to be outside. This is a windy place, and the enclosed “paradise garden,” is separated from the wild landscape by thick masonry walls. The footprint of the house is the limit of intrusion into the land—a simple, clearly defined space. This structure exemplifies Tom Kundig's belief that the architect’s job is to create an experience of place.

Outpost’s compactness limits site impact and reinforces the desire to be outside. The architects chose a readily available construction material—concrete block—for the primary structure; commercial builders were able to quickly and cheaply assemble the building. Interior materials are left largely unfinished.

Tom Kundig describes the concept as a Tootsie Roll Pop: hard on the outside and soft on the inside. The house is designed around one open, multifunctional room overlooked by a mezzanine bedroom, with separate studio/office and utility spaces on a lower entry level. Elevated above the ground (snowpack in winter), the main living levels have 360-degree views of the surrounding high desert and mountains.

Interior finishes include unfinished recycled fir floors, walls, and cabinets; plaster made from natural clays and pigments; and Carrara marble kitchen counters. Other materials used in the structure, including the concrete block, car decking (structural tongue-and-groove material), and plywood, require little or no maintenance and are capable of withstanding the extreme weather that characterize the desert’s four seasons.

In a windy environment, the enclosed garden provides protection to develop a cultured space. Nothing outside the walls is modified. The footprint of the building is the limit of intrusion into the landscape—a simple, clearly defined space within the landscape.

Project Team: Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA, Design Principal; Kirsten R. Murray, FAIA, Project Manager; Steven Rainville, AIA, LEED AP, Project Architect; Christopher Gerrick, AIA, LEEP AP BD+C, Nahoko Ueda, Architectural Staff.

General Contractor: Upham Construction

Consultants: MCE Structural Consultants (structural engineering)
Craftspeople: David Milligan (cabinet fabrication); McNae Metals and Design (custom metal fabrication for door, fireplace, fireplace flue, entry door handles, metal casework)