Thumb House in Madison, Wisconsin Residence, Contemporary County Real Estate, Architecture Images
Thumb House in Madison
Contemporary County Real Estate, WI, USA design by Lazor Office Architects
post updated April 19, 2026
Architects: Lazor Office
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Thumb House, Madison, WI, USA
Photos by Peter VonDeLinde
Jan 8, 2018
Thumb House – Wisconsin Residence
It can be challenging enough to find the right frame for a painting. But what if you want to frame an ever-changing natural environment—and you also want to live inside the frame?
The spaces of the Thumb House actively engage the surrounding landscape. Where the warm wood façade of the house recedes within a zinc wrapper, a wide outdoor room opens toward the lake, framing a panoramic view of water and sky.
White-stained wood lines the inside of the outdoor room, transitioning smoothly into the white interior of the house at a glass wall.
The logic of cutting into walls to reveal the tree canopy extends throughout the interior living spaces of the two-bedroom house while preserving privacy. Beneath high, continuous landscape windows, low walls define dining and lounge zones with a varied material palette—including tile, soapstone, birch, and walnut.
A thumb-like extension disrupts the rectangular geometry of the house to form a secluded study, where a window dips down over the desk to present an intimate view through a field of tree trunks to the lake. Wood shutters can be opened to bring in air, expanding the rooms in spring and summer.
Thumb House in Madison – Building Information
Project size: 2655 ft2
Completion date: 2009
Building levels: 1
Photography: Peter VonDeLinde
Thumb House in Madison images / information 080118 from Lazor Office Architects
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
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