IQ Glass UK

New Modern House Construction in Palo Alto, California. Interior Designer: Sarahliz Lawson Design Phtography: David Duncan Livingston

Trent Bell

Atrium hallway with storefront windows viewed toward the tea room and garden court beyond. Shingle siding spans interior and exterior. Floors are hydronically heated concrete. Bridge is stainless steel grating.

This modern lake house is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The residence overlooks a mountain lake with expansive mountain views beyond. The design ties the home to its surroundings and enhances the ability to experience both home and nature together. The entry level serves as the primary living space and is situated into three groupings; the Great Room, the Guest Suite and the Master Suite. A glass connector links the Master Suite, providing privacy and the opportunity for terrace and garden areas. Won a 2013 AIANC Design Award. Featured in the Austrian magazine, More Than Design. Featured in Carolina Home and Garden, Summer 2015.

Bagnato Architects AXIOM PHOTOGRAPHY

Realtor: Casey Lesher, Contractor: Robert McCarthy, Interior Designer: White Design

Peter Peirce

House By The Pond The overall design of the house was a direct response to an array of environmental regulations, site constraints, solar orientation and specific programmatic requirements. The strategy was to locate a two story volume that contained all of the bedrooms and baths, running north/south, along the western side of the site. An open, lofty, single story pavilion, separated by an interstitial space comprised of two large glass pivot doors, was located parallel to the street. This lower scale street front pavilion was conceived as a breezeway. It connects the light and activity of the yard and pool area to the south with the view and wildlife of the pond to the north. The exterior materials consist of anodized aluminum doors, windows and trim, cedar and cement board siding. They were selected for their low maintenance, modest cost, long-term durability, and sustainable nature. These materials were carefully detailed and installed to support these parameters. Overhangs and sunshades limit the need for summer air conditioning while allowing solar heat gain in the winter. Specific zoning, an efficient geothermal heating and cooling system, highly energy efficient glazing and an advanced building insulation system resulted in a structure that exceeded the requirements of the energy star rating system. Photo Credit: Matthew Carbone and Frank Oudeman

The exterior shows the natural pond and the bridge that spans from the master to the living area. The patios overlook the pond. The stone was harvested from the site and is set in subtle courses to add refinement. Photo: Gibeon Photography

This design for a year-round retirement home addresses all aspects of the site, which resides on the western flank of Blue Hill Bay and has easterly water views framed by a mature forest of oak, birch, and fir. The use of natural materials, featuring wood in all aspects, was an important way to tie the building to its site and its cultural context. Photo by Rob Karosis

When rebuilding this historic home to two and a half times its former size, Airoom blended the elegance of a five star lodge with the home’s original charm. Modern appliances resemble vintage furniture, and a custom shingle design mimics a thatched roof. The kitchen is crowned with a rustic copper-finished ceiling, but updated with Subzero wine storage. Sinks from Kohler’s “Memoirs” collection and a walk-in shower for two lend luxury to the master bath. Perhaps most important to homeowners who love to entertain, multiple passages were created to ease circulation indoors and out, making this the ideal place to gather with friends.

Joe Fletcher Atop a ridge in the Santa Lucia mountains of Carmel, California, an oak tree stands elevated above the fog and wrapped at its base in this ranch retreat. The weekend home’s design grew around the 100-year-old Valley Oak to form a horseshoe-shaped house that gathers ridgeline views of Oak, Madrone, and Redwood groves at its exterior and nestles around the tree at its center. The home’s orientation offers both the shade of the oak canopy in the courtyard and the sun flowing into the great room at the house’s rear façades. This modern take on a traditional ranch home offers contemporary materials and landscaping to a classic typology. From the main entry in the courtyard, one enters the home’s great room and immediately experiences the dramatic westward views across the 70 foot pool at the house’s rear. In this expansive public area, programmatic needs flow and connect - from the kitchen, whose windows face the courtyard, to the dining room, whose doors slide seamlessly into walls to create an outdoor dining pavilion. The primary circulation axes flank the internal courtyard, anchoring the house to its site and heightening the sense of scale by extending views outward at each of the corridor’s ends. Guest suites, complete with private kitchen and living room, and the garage are housed in auxiliary wings connected to the main house by covered walkways. Building materials including pre-weathered corrugated steel cladding, buff limestone walls, and large aluminum apertures, and the interior palette of cedar-clad ceilings, oil-rubbed steel, and exposed concrete floors soften the modern aesthetics into a refined but rugged ranch home.

Craig Blackmon, FAIA