Celebrating the tall trees that surround it, this tower-like home rises out of the green rolling hills of the Willamette valley. Designed for founders of the Rain forest Alliance, the home features sustainable harvested wood, low toxicity finishes and energy efficiency in a complex, multi-faceted space which reflects the lives of the owners.
“Sometimes now I walk around the house and see the… features that I had either forgotten about or didn’t pick up from the plans, and I feel like they are little presents from you to me.” – Diane Jukofsky
Built on a small footprint to minimize site impact, the plan consists of two overlapping rectangles rotated around a hillside, with the spatial core of the house focused on a prow of multi-storey glazing overlooking the landscape. Within this core, stairs wrap around a masonry mass that incorporates two wood stoves and mechanical systems as the heating/ventilating heart and lungs of the home. Multiple decks extend from different sides of the house, allowing the interior space to expand according to the season, time of day, or function.
In addition to the use of wood stoves and natural lighting, energy efficiency is optimized through construction measures of double stud walls, an airtight building envelope, heat recovery ventilation, thermal mass, and a convective air slab- see the ‘Green’ section of our website for more on these technologies.
