Architect | William Duff Architects |
Location | Bay Area, CA, United States |
Photographs | Matthew Millman |
This relaxing oasis for an intercontinental couple with busy careers in technology and their two young children blurs indoors and outdoors. Located in a neighborhood of similarly-scaled homes, near Silicon Valley’s intellectual and financial hub, the house features an H-shaped plan that maximizes its 1,012 sq. meters lot size.
Childhood memories of courtyard houses in India and the vernacular architecture of Ireland inspired the couple’s creative wish-list for this suburban residence. Elaborating on the design concept, WDA founder William Duff says, “The big gesture is the courtyard, which fosters a sense of community, and we maximized the relationship to the land through landscaping to create a feeling of expansiveness.”
The material palette features a variety of environmentally-sustainable wood species: the façade for the two-story main volume is clad in Western Red Cedar, while the flanking one-story volumes are made from smooth-troweled integral color stucco. This massing opens up in the rear of the house through fully-retractable, floor-to-ceiling glass doors to an Ipe deck courtyard and surrounding garden. Internal spaces feature a similarly-layered palette of fumed-oak wood floors, stained vertical grain Douglas-fir paneling, stained Tay Koto veneer cabinets, and a stained white oak wood stair.
Structural Engineer | FTF Engineering |
Lighting | Illuminosa |
Landscape | The Garden Route |