Explore this Oregon House, Bend Hideaway

Image of an Oregon house, the Bend Hideaway, a linear modern home among trees and open to nature — (Image credit: Adam Rouse)

Bend Hideaway, a new Oregon house for a couple of empty-nesters, brings together notions of relaxation and action, nature and a modernist-inspired, cocooning shelter. The project, designed by San Francisco studio Feldman Architecture, was conceived as a space for its clients to escape, support their active lifestyle among natural landscapes and, eventually, become their retirement haven.

Inside a new Oregon house: welcome to Bend Hideaway

Feldman Architecture is no stranger to crafting extraordinary escapes across the West Coast, both in seaside and wooded locations – such as Surf House in Santa Cruz and The Phoenix in Healdsburg, which was sensitively rebuilt following damage from a fire in its California region in 2017.

With Bend Hideaway, the architecture team had the mandate to create a home that would address its owners' current needs – space for exercise and resting, as well as a number of guest rooms for the couple's grown-up children when they visit – and future plans. The residence is located westward, towards a 650-acre nature preserve, which the owners would like to make the most of for hiking and skiing.

The architects explain: 'The design of the home reacts sensitively to the site, both shielding occupants from neighbours to the north while opening westward into a 650-acre nature preserve, providing hiking and cross-country skiing access as well as uninterrupted forested views. The glassy bridge also provides protection from wind, nestling the lap pool into a protected courtyard while providing visual connection to the preserve. Sliding doors open to immerse occupants into the surrounding forest views, and an outdoor firepit and sitting area off the great room blend indoor and outdoor living.'

The owners are avid admirers of 20th-century design and formerly owned a Richard Neutra home in Portland. Their appreciation for modernism informed the house's aesthetic and design decisions, leading to long linear forms, crisp surfaces and large openings.

The material palette, consisting of non-combustible panelling, concrete flooring, operable wood screens, black steel, warm wood and white plaster, paints a contemporary picture that gracefully juxtaposes the surrounding nature.

Inside, a low, rectangular volume contains the bedrooms, from the primary suite to three guest rooms and an office area. Off it, a glazed connection links up the private spaces to the living wing of the house, which is designed to open up to the forested landscape beyond (while cleverly avoiding a neighbouring home for privacy reasons). Next to this is the main entrance area and garage.

As for challenges? There are always some; the architects explain: 'The desire for privacy from the north and optimal views to the west set the building on conflicting orientations, which also needed to be reconciled with the sloping site topography. These constraints led us to a widespread building with two distinct wings with unique orientations. The great room orients towards the views, and the bedroom wing elongates perpendicularly to shield against the neighbour with enough length to accommodate a full lap pool. The floor levels follow the natural downward slope of the site, creating taller rooms in the westernmost spaces – the great room and primary bedroom suite.

'Additionally, both the clients, as well as our studio, had ambitious goals for a high-performance building with energy reduction in mind. This also dictated the orientation of the buildings and its glassy façades, keeping thermal comfort and performance in mind. Operable sliding screens offer adaptable solar shading, limiting summer heat gain while allowing passive solar access, daylight, and views during cooler months.'

feldmanarchitecture.com

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).