Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California

The story of this minimalist weekend retreat, Amnesia Home, begins by revisiting one other challenge, the four-storey household residence Keep in mind Home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley. Each have been designed for a similar household by Edmonds + Lee Architects, a apply based mostly within the metropolis’s Mission District, and neither is well forgotten.

If Keep in mind Home was constrained by its city location and vertical format, the brand new challenge, a non-public getaway, spreads out elegantly on a rural plot in California’s famed Napa Valley. Each, nonetheless, show companions Robert Edmonds and Vivian Lee’s famend formal readability and up to date spirit.

A minimalist weekend retreat is a spot for making recollections

‘One of many principal challenges was working inside the constraints of the positioning, which introduced logistical difficulties, together with restricted entry for development supplies and a must fastidiously protect the pure environment,’ explains Edmonds.

Though it seems easy, the home is definitely sited on a tough 19-acre parcel comprising a rocky ledge subsequent to a ravine. The architects scoured the difficult plot for an appropriate web site, lastly figuring out a sliver of land on which to position the home. It’s this context that knowledgeable the lengthy, slender silhouette of the home.

Designed to ‘strike the elusive steadiness between privateness and expansive views’, the home is split right into a double bar plan separating private and non-private areas. Its crisp gable roofs and metal envelopes reference the native wooden barns and corrugated steel sheds, but additionally the clear strains of Nordic cabins.

They’re clad in Cor-Ten metal, which ages gracefully but additionally provides inherently greater resistance to wildfires than fire-treated wooden. The twin-layer, customized Core-Ten cladding was designed to eradicate gaps (a hearth danger for flying embers).

‘Moreover constructing a concrete bunker, there may be frankly not way more we might have achieved to make this home hearth resilient,’ says Edmonds. ‘We took nice care with choosing fire-resistant supplies that improve the structure and don’t detract from it.’

There are hearth sprinklers in all places, inside and within the backyard, with the assorted areas linked by seamless terrazzo-ground concrete flooring. Giant openings framed within the exterior’s Cor-Ten add a layer of heat color to the inside, and additional hyperlink the interiors with the encircling panorama.

United by a central glazed vestibule, the volumes are oriented east to west, with the doorway at one finish and a swimming pool on the different. A collection of deep roof overhangs create area for a poolside terrace and supply safety from the solar. ‘We wished to deal with the ends as open as attainable to make the patios really feel like they bleed out past the home,’ explains Edmonds.

In addition to Danish Backyard Hvalsøe cabinetry, the open-plan kitchen and eating area includes a great piece by Studio Drift, who’ve turned their authentic paintings Fragile Future, composed of dandelion seeds, into a surprising chandelier.

‘The lounge is a favorite area of ours,’ says Edmond. ‘We particularly positioned it to seize one of the best views of the positioning, particularly through the golden hour, when the sundown bathes the area in heat, comfortable mild. This time of day highlights the encircling panorama and brings a pure glow to the room, enhancing the sense of tranquility and connection to nature.’

One other spotlight is the first bed room suite, which is tucked into the jap gable of the house, away from the general public areas. ‘It accommodates expansive home windows that body views and an adjoining non-public terrace porch that opens instantly onto sweeping valley vistas,’ explains Edmonds. ‘On the terrace, historical rock outcrops actually rise via the terrace slab, making a second the place the geology appears to overhaul the structure.