Caterpillar House

Embodying the owner’s love for modern ranch house architecture, this innovative home, designed with Feldman Architecture, sits lightly on its site and connects outwards to the Preserve’s landscape. We located the structure at the lowest point between surrounding hills so that it would be as visually inconspicuous as possible. Rammed earth walls, built using earth excavated from the site, define outdoor living spaces and serve to retain the soil along the edges of the drive and at patio spaces. Within the outdoor living spaces surrounding the buildings, native plants are combined with succulents and ornamental plants to contrast with the open grassland and provide a rich setting for entertaining, while garden areas to the south are stepped and allowed to erode on the edges, blending into the hillside. Sitting prominently adjacent to the home, three tanks capture rainwater for irrigation and are a clear indication of water available for the landscape throughout the year. LEED Platinum certification. Photo by Joe Fletcher.