Paradox House

Our clients embodied the design concept for this new home in Sonoma’s Wine Country, as they balance each other in a lovely paradox. Coming from opposite hemispheres with contrasting cultural references, one is cooler and drawn to order, and the other is more whimsical with a love for fiery colors. This delightful dance between their two styles reverberates throughout the project informing the architectural concept and approach to site design.

The design of the new house further influenced our approach to designing the site. Steep stone banks at the entry speak to the angles of the architecture with a metal stairway echoing the metal fins of the house’s loggia. Here the building floats a story above grade creating a dramatic entry sequence to the house and a shaded grotto gathering space underneath. Using stone excavated from the site, rock-lined banks flank the stair and trapezoidal cairn-like forms create focal points along main sight lines. The stone was crushed and set in broad swaths to create a fire resistant buffer around the building. A retention basin, collecting the site drainage, was carved into the land providing the negative space to complement the stone landforms. At the back of the house, a long pool slips along the outer deck, one jump away from a swim. The activity lawn and fire pit meet existing grade to ground the entire back side of the house firmly into the land.

The plant palette, a mix of soft grey green Mediterranean plants highlighted with hot coloured foliage and flowers from South Africa and Australia, is a final movement in this paradoxical composition.