Spur Home
During the Great Depression, a small group of unknown and unemployed WPA artists –working out of an office in Berkeley, California– produced a series of vibrant silk-screened posters promoting escape to the wilderness of the national parks. Hovering between caricature and the picturesque, the fantasy images highlighted the majesty of nature, with architecture and its inhabitants playing distinctly minor roles. The images were meant as a salve for the dreary realities of urban life in the 1930s. The idealism of this work inspires this modern home in nature, where the forests, cliffs, valleys, and wildlife dominate the scene.
Like a lens, each wing of the spur-shaped plan adjusts its angle and length to focus on far and near views, framed through picture windows at each wing’s end. The spurs of the plan create four distinct exterior spaces in between, creating privacy and shade over the course of the day. We designed the form, scale, and materials of the new home to defer to the existing site –keeping the focus on the very reason to build on such majestic terrain in the first place. Please contact us for more detailed information.