Keep Exploring Architizer by Creating a Free Account or Logging in.

This feature is for industry professionals.  To unlock it, signup and then join or add your company. To unlock this feature,  signup and then submit your professional details.

Membership is Free.

LinkedIn Facebook Google
or
Already a Member? Sign in.
Add To Collection Add to Collection
Butterfly House  

Butterfly House

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, United States

View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection
View Original View Original
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Other Projects by Feldman Architecture
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Viewridge
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Guzhai
Add To Collection Add to Collection

The Phoenix
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Seven Hills SF
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Curveball
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Pebble Beach
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Atherton Renewal
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Rau Haus
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Sonoma Wine Country 1
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Round House
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Atherton Pavilions
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Surf House
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Sunrise
Add To Collection Add to Collection

The Pavilion

Add To Collection Add to Collection

The Farm
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Tierwelthaus
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Salesforce Tower Office Space
Add To Collection Add to Collection

The Sanctuary
Add To Collection Add to Collection

Twin Peaks
Add To Collection Add to Collection

The Meadow Home

Butterfly House

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, United States

STATUS
Built
YEAR
2013
BUTTERFLY HOUSE
Carmel, California

The clients approached Feldman Architecture to design a retreat for eventual retirement and visits from their grown children—a retreat befitting the natural beauty of the location in the Santa Lucia Preserve, a 20,000 acre private development and land trust near Carmel, California. The clients were meticulous in the selection of the site, searching for two years for a spectacular piece of land that was flat enough to accommodate living on one level. In an initial meeting with Feldman Architecture, the clients noted their vision of butterflies alighting on the meadow site, which the architects took as inspiration. They also expressed a desire to integrate indoor and outdoor spaces with a simple, modern aesthetic and to provide separate spaces for their visitors.

Sitting lightly on the land, the house is divided into three pavilions that are topped by expressive butterfly roofs. Each pavilion has a separate function: the central pavilion houses the main living, dining, and cooking spaces, while two other pavilions provide for sleeping, bathing, and relaxing. The structures are modest in size, yet each expands into an outdoor room that opens up to dramatic views of the canyon below and hills above.

Beyond poetic gesture, the butterfly roofs bring in views of the surrounding hills, expand the main living spaces into the outdoors and also harvest rainwater. Water, an increasingly limited resource, is celebrated throughout the design. Each roof funnels water to a rain chain fountain and into landscape collection pools, which then gather in cisterns where it is stored and used to irrigate the landscape. In addition, the pavilions were sited to allow storm water to flow under the office bridge during the rainy season and seep slowly into the ground in the main courtyard.

The neutral palette of the house—concrete floors and walls, large glass openings, plywood ceilings, and steel structure—flows from indoors to outdoors. The use of concrete and large expanses of glass acts as a heat sink—absorbing heat from the sunlight all day and releasing that heat at night. The house uses little energy as a result of extensive daylighting and passive thermal strategies. A large solar array located out-of-sight provides much of the energy that is used.


Project Team
Architect: Feldman Architecture
General Contractor: Groza Construction
Landscape Architect: Bernard Trainor + Associates
Structural Engineer: Sheerline Structural Engineering
Lighting Consultant: Kim Cladas Lighting Design
Audio Visual Consultant: MetroEighteen

Photography: Joe Fletcher Photography and Jason Liske

Product Spec Sheet

Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.

Collaborating Firms

Joe Fletcher Photography
Photographer
Was your firm involved? Add it now.

Team

Were you involved? Add yourself.
Oops… Something didn't work.

Please check support.architizer.com for more information.

We are here to help! Contact us at support@architizer.com.