This is the final addition to an ongoing project on War Eagle Creek in NW Arkansas. This expansion of the SE corner visually dissolves the distinction between inside and outside, recalling the open air nature of the original 1960's cabin in a sleek new way. The project contains flexible open spaces with lots of internal connection, while maintaining privacy when needed, and intentional spaces for art.
Project Statement
This project is the culmination of a series of collaborative projects between our clients and our team over the span of several years. The focus of this submission is this last part, but includes the subsequent re-imagining of some of our earlier work, made necessary by tornado damage, and a lightning strike induced fire. Thankfully the newly completed work was spared any damage from those events, and we were able to participate in the reconstruction and renovations that followed.
At the core of the whole project is a 1960's era cabin on War Eagle Creek in Northwest Arkansas. Our clients purchased it in the early 1990's and initially slept in the unheated sleeping porch, coming into the wood stove heated room for kitchen & bath, and the very coldest nights. Most of the eating and living happened in another screened porch, or outside on the terrace.
As the years went by, the subsequent additions and alterations increased the variety, size, and sophistication of the interior spaces, but also included new types of exterior spaces, to get out over the river, link new buildings, and enhance the use and understanding of the larger site. The buildings that make up the project are intertwined with the trees and topography, hugging the top of the bluff line above the river.
The architecture evokes the open air nature of the earlier iterations. The roof forms flow from inside out, and exterior spaces become interior spaces gradually.
