Sky Arc Residence

Add To Collection

Featured products in this project 3

Wood Fixed Frame + Storefront Windows

Other Projects by Will Bruder Architects

Add To Collection

Henkel North American Headquarters

Add To Collection

Sky Arc Residence

Firm

Will Bruder Architects

YEAR

2004

The crescent plan of the house derives its form from topography and landscape, embedded in the hillside and similar to the gentle curvature of the Northern California hills. Structures are placed for maximum preservation of native vegetation, including specimen Coast Live Oak and Madrone trees. Several landmark trees become focal points at entry or in foreground views. The simple volumes, clad in pre-weathered pewter-gray zink, are intended to recede into the texture of the landscape. Vertical ‘standing seam’ fins in the cladding create a randomly-spaced shadow pattern like shadows of Pines and Redwoods on the site. Small panels of venetian plaster punctuate rooms with colors of land, sun, and sky, recalling Eames or Nelson design, or the paintings of Richard Diebenkorn. Glass is ‘solex green’, for visual harmony with landscape; operable windows are mahogany for their warmth, and linkage to architectural traditions of the place, including Maybeck, Moore, Esherick, Eichler, and Kahn. In lieu of overhangs, shade is provided by translucent fiberglass awnings—gossamer thin blue filters for the Bay Area sun—luminous for overcast January days. The house is a choreography of light and shadow, of exterior and interior, and private and public spaces. Descending from the entry above, a framed bay view introduces the visitor to the house and its natural surroundings. The sense of movement—past window seats, through doors, across rooms—carries a sensual freshness and continuity throughout the house. The main sitting room expands through glass and sliding partitions to a cantilevered wood deck and lawn terrace; boundaries dissolve into the landscape through airy perforated metal railings and translucent fiberglass awnings.The music studio across the garden is inset several feet in the earth, placing window sills at grade. The interiors have reverberant concrete floor, with faceted wall linings of wood, plaster, and fabric to absorb, diffuse, and reflect sound. In concept these lightweight foldings are origami fans within stone boxes, giving form to the experiences of making and hearing music.This is an architecture formed of its site, an abstraction blended with the tone and topography of its natural context, deferring to the sublime wooded garden site. It is conceived as an enfolding nest to embrace the family and their habitation of house and landscape, adapting through stages of living. It will foster a lifestyle colored by the inherent beauty and wonder of the place. Constantly shifting with patterns of light, weather and season, it will be a place of continual engagement of creativity and the senses—a composition of precise proportion and scale, texture and refinement.