Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026

House in the Mountains

House in the Mountains
Steve Mundinger

House in the Mountains

Looking to extend the idea of the ‘Landscape House,’ this 2,850 SF guest house in the Rocky Mountains integrates into and accentuates its mountain environment. Two intersecting bar shapes bookend to complete the implied courtyard of the original house, creating a high mountain yard that connects the two structures into a single family gathering place. The East-West bar of the new structure houses three bedrooms and the garage, while the North-South bar encloses the living, dining and kitchen areas. Planes of ‘roof meadow’ render the house practically invisible from the road, preserve and highlight the original view from the existing structure, and provide a super-insulated envelope. Continuous clerestory glass focuses the panorama views and provides a completely day-lit space.

 

A thick solar wall on the South side separates the service side of the building from the main courtyard while creating a secondary space for cars, storage and the harvesting of solar energy. A corten-clad retaining wall slices diagonally across the site, capturing the solar courtyard on one side and forming a private sunken court on the other. The solar panels heat the house and the outdoor pool and hot tub. The pool and interior floors are ‘overheated’ during the day, acting as heat sinks, to avoid mechanical heating at night. An integrated building information system includes real-time sensor information and energy performance that is controlled remotely. This real-time information enables a system to respond to changing environmental conditions and to optimize over time, reducing fossil fuel usage by over 60% as well as energy costs.

 

Material Used :
1. Arcadia Custom (Sliding Doors)
2. Custom Glass Window Wall (PPG Glass)
3. Solar Panels (Heliodyne)
4. Interior And Exterior Flooring  (Wausau Custom Precast Pavers) 
5. Custom Stainless Steel Jacuzzi (Diamond Spas)
6. Minerit HD Cement Board (American Fiber Cement Corp)
7. Corten Steel Panels (Western States Decking)
8. Green Roof (American Hydrotech)

Project credits

Architects
Glazing Consultant
Mechanical and Environmental Engineer
Low Voltage/Mechanical Controls
Lighting
Structural Engineer

Product spec sheet

Green Roof
Minerit HD Cement Board
Sliding Doors
Western States Decking
Custom Stainless Steel Jacuzzi

Project data

Project Year
2012
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