This is a House about its place: Geography. Geology. Elevation. Orientation. Climate. History. Culture. It sits on the north facing brow of a hill, leaving the top to the south unmolested, a peak to visit rather than occupy. To the north is the long view, with plenty of drama.
Project Statement
A new house, to be located on 200+ acres of Missouri Ozarks hillside.
Where to start? What is the project about? The Place!
The land itself is limestone karst, cut through by water exposing massive sheltering bluffs, creating apertures that frame views both short and long, and sheltering overhangs that tempered the sun and the wind.
This was the idea, to make the house in the same way. Concentrate the core elements into the stone masses, and use them to create the spaces in between, where the light and air provide the space for life.
Apertures between the masses direct views and provide transparency, bringing the inside and outside together. The singular floor & the sculpted oak ceiling bridge the line between the two.
The stone masses border and define the main spaces, and are carved away where the served spaces meet.
The material palette is limited, with walnut panels filling the voids carved from the stone masses which hold and conceal the service cores. Large expanses of glass celebrate the site. Roof overhangs calculated to work passively with the sun create spaces that recall the natural bluff shelters that provided shelter for eons.
The spaces between are illuminated with natural light, which reveals the changing orientations of the stone masses as one moves through the space.
The house works with the site in eternal ways, but is also technologically of our time – radiant floors, high performance HVAC systems, controlled LED lighting, lightning control
systems.
