This home’s site has a great view looking west down the Columbia River Gorge and beautiful evergreen trees to the south.  Some of the challenges faced while designing a home for the site were a tight height limit to maintain the uphill neighbor’s view, side sloping topography, and filtering views between neighboring houses.  Working within these parameters, the Northwest contemporary home blends natural materials and modern forms to compliment the site and take advantage of views.

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Rooms are arranged to create views to the west around the downhill hill neighbor’s house and provide framed views of the trees to the south.  Nearly all of the main rooms have a view of the river gorge through windows that were placed to also filter neighbor’s houses only a few hundred feet away.

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The home is connected to the outdoors through a ten foot wide sliding glass door that leads to the south yard’s partially covered patio with outdoor kitchen and outdoor shower.  The second level’s living space is connected to a large covered view deck.

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A masonry and stone wood burning fireplace runs vertically through the heart of the home for warm fires in both living spaces during the wet northwest winters.  The fireplace on the main level divides the living and dining rooms, yet is open to be enjoyed from both spaces.

Vertical tongue and groove cedar was designed for the primary exterior cladding to unify the home’s varying forms, and natural stone was chosen to anchor the home to its topography.

 

Notable sustainable features:

-solar water heating

-solar electricity

-natural ventilation/cooling

-certified harvested framing wood from local trees

-advanced framing techniques

-rain screen siding application

-high performance spray foam insulation

-rain water collection

-high efficiency heating system

-wood composite floor joists and roof rafters

-water efficient/native landscaping

-metal roof

 

 

Credits:

Design: Matthew O. Daby- M.O.Daby Design