Suspension House spans a creek in the Californian hills
Anne Fougeron has remodelled an existing house into a striking new Californian home that combines classic modernist aesthetics with a very contemporary respect for the landscape
![Suspension House spans a creek in the Californian hills](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8LVwTyCJyiCXJyMNEx4AmT-415-80.jpg)
The Suspension House is one of those rare architectural statements that only comes along once in a generation. The combination of site, vision, and skill is so often squandered, but San Francisco-based architect Anne Fougeron has translated her clients’ desires into spectacular reality, respecting the wildness of the site without compromising on the clarity of the design.
The existing house occupies the kind of site that is not only rare but actually forbidden (California no longer allows homes to be built across a creek), so Fougeron and her team had to make the most of the opportunity. The original house had to be retrofitted with new structure to support the load of the new additions, all while touching only lightly on the ground.
‘A man-made object in nature may exist in harmony or disparity,’ Fougeron points out, ‘The goal was to reconnect this structure into the environment while best utilizing the exceptional site for the clients.’ The law dictated that the new structure had to follow the exact outline of the original house, which luckily included three generous outdoor areas.
A carefully planned structural system allowed the mass of the original house to be expanded with a new upper floor, rotated 90 degrees to the main structure. Whereas the first house was supported by columns that were driven into the creek bed, the architects and engineers came up with a suspension bridge-type structure slung between the two slopes. This allowed the water to run impeded beneath the house.
The proximity to water has been exploited at every conceivable occasion. With structural elements and fixtures like the staircase and kitchen finished in dark colours and floors, ceilings, and internal wall planes in white, the house is set up as a simple, unassuming frame to the wilderness beyond.
Transparent materials are used throughout, including floor-to-ceiling windows, glass doors and balustrades, and open tread staircases, ensuring that the verdant cliffs, surrounding forest and running water are felt from every room in the house.
The house is entered from the second floor via a walkway threaded through the forest, with an open plan living and dining space occupying the entire level. Decks at front and rear overlook the creek, which runs east-west beneath the house.
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
A guest suite with its own private deck is located on the bottom-most floor, along with utility areas, while the primary bedroom suite is set within the new third floor. Up here there’s another bedroom and flexible space, with a new roof terrace opening off the largest bedroom.
A separate guest house is located alongside the path to the main house, with black cladding to distinguish it, and a sleeping platform and galley kitchen.
Not many houses have a waterfall in their backyard - a certain Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright springs to mind. Fougeron describes the project as a house that ‘balances the role of architecture - especially modernism - in nature with the role of the client to their home,’ and the end result certainly meets the challenge.
The architect set up her studio in 1985 and has won multiple awards. Previous projects include the Fall House in Big Sur and a collaboration with OMA on The Avery tower in San Francisco. §
INFORMATION
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published