Rustic Boreal Forest Residence Connected by a Glass Bridge | Whistler Ski House

North of San Francisco, in Glen Ellen, a less populated part of the Napa wine country, the culture has been based on agriculture and was named for an original winery.  Jack London made this his permanent home here in the early 1900s. Drawn by the land, London believed in the redemptive qualities of rural life. Less than an hour from the City, rolling hills covered with groves of oak trees surround the downtown. The strong agricultural history has affected the built environment here with many examples of barn like houses that are confusingly morphed between the two vocabularies. On the existing footprint of a 1950’s ranch house, this family getaway evolved in response to a request for a retreat from their urban lifestyle. The atmosphere of a tack barn renovated into a bunk house on site inspired thoughts of a larger barn like typology for this main house of 3,900 square feet. The request from the client was to build in a consistent way within the rolling hills dappled with agricultural buildings. A simple, rectangular, two-story form emerged with an asymmetrical gabled roof. The shorter side of the roof faces the southwest sun and reduces heat gain to the structure. Fenestration is limited to this exposure as well and is organized like thin full height ventilation shutters that reference traditional barn building. The entry, a larger version of the vertical slit elements is recessed for shading. The fireplace and chimney, foreign to the barn typology, is displaced from the structure with glazed joints. The east side is more open to the view and morning sun. A continuous, building-sized assembly of steel sash glazing includes large sliding doors that pocket into the adjacent wall and open the kitchen to the rear terrace.  The upper zone of the main space is void of windows and reminds one of the empty shell-like spaces of barns. A large vertical wood shutter located on the southeast gable end is aligned axially with an internal access through the plan on both levels. When open at both ends, prevailing breezes flow through the mass cooling it naturally. In order to leave the hillside intact and avoid grading, the form is excavated into the site uphill and cantilevered over it downhill. A steel grated bridge connects the upper sleeping level with the hillside and tack barn above. A minimal material pallet of reclaimed redwood, corrugated Corten steel and black steel sash windows combined with integral gutters, and lack of overhangs further the minimal feeling of the construction. Inside the singular materiality is continued via California Oak for floors wall and ceilings. Radiantly heated floors and minimal cooling provided only at sleeping areas, coupled with enhanced glazing, insulation and mechanical system efficiencies mitigate energy use. PROJECT TEAM Architecture : Faulkner Architects Contractor: Redhorse Constructors Civil Engineer: Adobe Associates Structural Engineer: CFBR Structural Group Mechanical Engineer: Sugarpine Engineering Electrical Engineer: Sugarpine Engineering Geotechnical Engineer: NV5 Landscape: Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture Lighting: Ken Fulk Interior designer: Ken Fulk Theatrical/AV: SoundVision Pool Engineer: Terracon Pool Consultant: Blue Revolution Construction Project Manager: Walker Construction Management Special Inspections: PJC & Associates CALGreen: Gilleran Energy Management Irrigation Design: Dickson & Associates Arborist: Bartlett Trees PHOTOGRAPHY Joe Fletcher Photography

Located on a steep Cherimoya orchard in the foothills of Carpinteria, Shepard Mesa House is a new home for a young family of four. The neighborhood consists of dispersed homes along a single road leading up and around the crown of a hill. Sited diagonally to the contours of the hill, the house slopes with the natural fall of the land. Interior functions at three different levels are gathered under a single gable roof. Bedrooms at the lower elevations are nestled into the working orchard around them where the trees provide the most privacy. The living room, kitchen and dining area on the upper level opens downslope and affords the most expansive views. Neighboring homes are just out of sight as the view stretches out across the valley to the backside of Rincon Mountain. The siting, orientation, and plan take advantage of natural light and ventilation reducing the reliance on mechanical systems and creating a living experience in balance with the site.

REVEALING THE EVIDENCE Confrontation with the reality of these ruins was always a confrontation seeped in memories. Memories
of a place where the raw matter it is constituted of – the rock, the valley and the mountain – shows evident expression, provoking a game of fine balance between place, matter, light and shadow. We found light that dripped down the stone walls defining spaces separated only by rows of stacked rock. In each fissure, in each wrinkle, a soft balance between light and shadow. Standing before this scenery, the exercise consisted in finding the most natural way to connect ruins and spaces, simultaneously defining future possibilities for links between the interior and the exterior. Where decisions were concerned, we chose to rehabilitate pre-existing volumes and introduce a new connecting element. The answer is given by the almost immediate decision to join together the pre-existing elements. This
gesture, deeply connected to the terrain along the pendente – connects the two sections facing west,
forming an exterior courtyard adorned with a centenary olive tree. This project builds a space that runs through the ruins, uniting them and revealing the obvious functional relationship between the house’s programmatic areas, simultaneously differentiating the possibilities for inhabiting the exterior space. It expresses its temporality through the antagonism of matter in its relationship with pre-existing elements.