This mountain home serves as a creative retreat for a California based couple. The homeowners, authors who also own and manage an independent record label out of Mill Valley, California, were looking for a nature-oriented outpost in Wyoming in which to pursue their writing practice. The client’s bohemian lifestyle and love of music, literature and the great outdoors were the inspiration behind the design.
Composed of three buildings (main house, guesthouse, and writer’s studio), the home is arranged as a set of simple box-like volumes, each designed in response to its specific location. The 6,000 square-foot main house is conceived as a geologic remnant in the landscape, located on the edge between field and forest. The 1,577 square-foot guesthouse and 580 square-foot writer’s studio are nestled more intimately within the wooded environment. A fourth, spiritually focused structure is under construction and will be sited further to the south. The architecture is open, with sweeping views to mountain vistas of the Grand Tetons, natural fauna, forests, and meadows.
Site: Located in a natural clearing to maximize solar exposure; location minimized impact to existing vegetation, utilized existing fire road for a driveway; compressed footprint; strict Grading and Erosion Control per county regulations; salvaged native planting medium; landscaping vegetated naturally to reduce irrigation; existing swale allows for site drainage.
Energy: East/west orientation to max solar gain; super insulated building envelope, full cavity insulation & exterior continuous insulation, triple paned glass; natural ventilation; radiant flooring; HRV, redistributing heat recovered from exhausted air and injected into building; smart thermostat mech system; efficient VRF System; LED lighting throughout, Dark Skies Compliant.
Materials: Shou Sugi Ban siding for low maintenance.
Rectilinear in plan, the house appears to grab surrounding trees as anchors, sinking in the center, and pulling upward toward the sky at the corners. Working in concert with the landscape, this dynamic quality is carried through the building’s charred shou sugi ban exterior, tugged and carved to create overhangs and openings. The entrance to the home is located where the structure reaches out over a lowland creek, the relationship revealed by a moment of transparency in the floor. The architecture is open, with sweeping views to mountain vistas of the Grand Tetons, natural fauna, forests, and meadows.
We appreciate that each window frames a view of the prairie and Teton range beyond. Our bohemian lifestyle and love of music, literature and the outdoors inspired the design. We love comfort, layers and texture, vintage pieces, and a home that is inviting to family and friends and laid back enough for our dogs. Every surface has been elevated, with artisan details like the custom-designed, tattoo-inspired bas relief concrete on the fireplace surround and a hand-painted custom wallpaper mural.
CLB is a cross-disciplinary design firm which pushes the growing edge of contemporary practice. Since their founding in Jackson, Wyoming in 1992, CLB has taken their frontier origins as a guiding ethos, mobilizing a uniquely holistic and place-inspired approach to projects spanning North America. Driven by an innate responsibility to people and place, and a desire to respond authentically to the conditions in which they practice their craft, CLB’s adept team of architecture and interior design professionals work to create environments that can elevate, enrich, and inspire. CLB’s highly-collaborative team includes 55 design professionals, working between studios in Bozeman, Montana and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA.
https://clbarchitects.com/proj...