winterview residence

location: Hendersonville, NC
est. completion date: tbd
project team:
Frank Harmon
Matthew Griffith

problem statement

The client’s property is situated along a steeply sloped, heavily wooded ravine in the mountains of North Carolina. They asked us for a modern house that embodied the tactile qualities of the mountains and allowed the beauty of the surrounding landscape to dominate. Requested spaces include an artist’s studio, living room, master and guest suites, a study/library, and a goat barn.

our design response

Taking cues from the land, we designed Winterview as a clearing in the forest, a compound of spaces arranged around a south facing central courtyard. The approach is up a narrow mountain road, from which the house reveals itself as a wood shingled shell covered in moss, barely distinguishable from the land. The entry to the L-shaped house is a breezeway that separates guest quarters and main living space, an immediate threshold between forest and clearing.

The wood-shingled roof hovers above a locally harvested stone wall, made from the same rock outcropping on which the house sits. The wall wraps the L-shaped house and culminates in a great hearth. Large openings on the north wall frame spectacular views of Mt. Pisgah and allow light to filter into the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. The stone wall mediates between the built and natural environment and thus provides a sense of prospect and refuge from within.

The design of the roof and breezeway takes advantage of local wind patterns and passive ventilation to create a venturi effect. Cool summer breezes accelerate through the courtyard, house, and breezeway, while cold northern winds are blocked by the low slung roof and stone wall on the north wall. The artist studio is sunken into the southwest corner of the courtyard, providing privacy and views from the house over its sod roof to the mountainside beyond.

Natural light, contrasting natural materials, and carefully articulated views all contribute to a design grounded in a primordial connection to the natural environment, giving the client a sense of living within nature.