The Low/Rise House reimagines the suburban housing type through interlocking bars of shared and private program. The composition re-appropriates the traditional forms of the California ranch house and farm tower as tools of environmental performance and social interaction, deployed to create variable density, natural ventilation, solar energy generation, day-lighting, and immersion into the site. The building can effectively shut down various program spaces, allowing for an intimate feeling (and low energy consumption) when inhabited by a single person, but allows for a spacious and integrated configuration for ten or more. The structure is long, low, and narrow, settling into the tree-lined landscape and allowing yards to surround and permeate each room. A 3-story tower and roof deck emerges among vibrant evergreens, providing a unique vantage point of the surrounding townscape. Through an integral relationship between form and material, the structure responds sensitively site, nature, and neighborhood.
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