Architect Casper Mork-Ulnes was approached by two San Francisco couples to create a sleek retreat a hundred miles or so north up the 101, deep in Californian wine country
Moose Road House in California, by Mork-Ulnes Architects
Moose Road House in California, by Mork-Ulnes Architects
The design had to be low-cost but also prefabricated, as the location was hard to access with heavy machinery and trucks
The key generator of the form was the unspoilt views across the surrounding hills. Perversely, this also kept costs down. 'We reduced the number of windows to capture just the essential views,' says Mork-Ulnes. As a result, the house spreads across the site like a threefingered mitten laid upon the ground, each finger terminating in an expansive glazed wall and a carefully considered vista
Local firm Double-D Engineering created a steel stilt framework to keep the structure above (and between) tree roots, ensuring the building touched lightly upon its site
The entrance is up six steps, mounted above a tiny concrete foundation, leading you straight into the living space
Inside, the viewing axes shoot off in the three carefully chosen directions, looking across to Eagle Rock, a local landmark, as well as a distant ridge and the vineyard-filled valley
The open-plan living space features great expanses of raw plywood and OSB (oriented strand board) surfaces
This is essentially a shelter for a very outdoor-focused lifestyle, and fixtures and fittings are kept to a bare minimum. The San Francisco artist Yvonne Mouser contributed a selection of simple furniture using burnt wood
The bedrooms and bathrooms occupy the other two fingers of the structure
The Moose Road House is shaped by the ingenious response to its site, respect for which has served up a design that turns limitations into bold, elegant and apparently uncompromising architecture