Box on the Rock, Sonoma home photos, Northern Californian real estate, CA Architecture Images
Box on the Rock in Sonoma
Japanese Inspired Villa, CA, United States design by Schwartz and Architecture, Architects
Feb 29, 2016
Location: Sonoma, California, USA (just north of San Francisco)
Design: Schwartz and Architecture
Box on the Rock
Photos by Bruce Damonte
Box on the Rock, northern California
With an economy of means, this simple form morphs to amplify the experience of the dramatic site and create an expansive feeling home that belies its small footprint.
Each adjustment to the diagrammatic box negotiates the functional and environmental needs to foster self-contained and site-specific living with a minimal environmental impact.
The tightly constrained footprint of the affectionately named “Box on the Rock” is a response to a limited budget and difficult site. Shallow underground hillside waterways run across the site often daylighting in unexpected and unwanted locations. These necessitated relatively expensive pier footings thus motivating an extremely efficient 2,000 sq ft footprint.
With no initial resources to develop the wild scrub and rock landscape of the 3-acre property, the home becomes a lone outpost settling the higher ground of the larger natural site –a literal box on a rock.
Given these limitations, the architecture of this outpost needs to provide for all indoor and outdoor functions within its area. With the extremes of the wine country microclimate on the exposed site, this becomes an even more critical requirement for year-round comfort. The central courtyard and the cantilevered deck are strategically carved out of the diagrammatic box to ensure that over the course of the day, temperate options for both sun and shade are always available.
In particular, the geometry of the overhang at the front cantilevered deck and the inward angle of its exterior glass walls are carefully calibrated to capture morning sun and winter warming while shielding the internal space from the harshest summer glare. Later in the day the central courtyard comes alive as the sunniest developed outdoor space, yet one that is naturally cooled by capturing the valley cross breezes.
Box on the Rock in Sonoma – Real Estate Information
Location: Sonoma, CA, USA
Year: 2015
Area: 2,000 sq ft
Photography: Bruce Damonte
Box on the Rock in Sonoma images / information from Schwartz and Architecture, USA
Location: Sonoma, Northern California, United States of America
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