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Architects: Studio William Hefner
- Area: 7745 ft²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Roger Davies
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Manufacturers: AXOR, Hansgrohe, B&B Italia, Miele, Cabinets, Fleetwood, Stone Floors
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Lead Architects: William Hefner, AIA
Text description provided by the architects. A couple commissioned a new home with an emphasis on natural light and the surrounding landscape. The contemporary design rises from the site, presenting the street with a dynamic façade in which rugged walls of concrete and metal provide privacy to the first floor while soaring glass at the second floor fills the house with light. Tilted roof planes nod to the traditional sloped roofs of the neighborhood.
At the rear, the second floor features a louvered trellis that runs the length of the house and a thick floor system that extends far beyond the first-floor area below. Recalling le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, this accentuated horizontal volume conveys the sense that it hovers above the site. At the same time, it integrates the house with its surroundings by creating shaded outdoor rooms to complement interior spaces for seamless indoor-outdoor living.
Inside the hard shell of concrete, metal, and glass, the interior is warm and open. Living spaces flow together in an open plan, with cues in the finishes and lighting strategies to subtly differentiate spaces. The palette of materials ranges from striated marble to finely grooved tile and backlit birch-wood ribbons. The textures and muted colors of the materials brings an intimate, human scale to the bright, airy volumes. The art studio, a uniquely serene and private space, is bare but for a window onto a private garden and a skylight system that composes its entire roof.
