Designed for a steep sloping site, the Little John residence is a large modern home, set in a historical intown neighborhood overlooking the Ansley Golf Course. The owners needed a welcoming house for entertaining that could also serve as a quiet retreat from their busy schedules. They wanted to take advantage of the unique site nestled between a private drive and public street with a view which in turn, created the opportunity for both a fully extroverted and completely introverted home.

This approach focused on the integration of a completely glazed volume blending interior and exterior with a completely opaque extrusion of wood. The home remains visually quite open while ensuring privacy through careful massing and maximising existing site conditions such as slope and foliage. The open plan of living, dining and kitchen wrap around the exterior courtyard, pool, and pool house form a single large and continuous space for entertaining. While moving through the house the scale seamlessly transitions from grand to intimate. The main thrust of the house is a canted bar of tongue and groove cypress siding which ensures privacy around all bedrooms with limited slices for recessed windows. The homeowners were very trusting, eager and hands-on with a precise eye for detail. The home features a variety of unique elements such as a custom fabricated solid surface integral sink, minimal HVAC diffusers milled from interior wood siding and a cantilevered marble island. In addition, the home has thick walls and spray foam insulation lending a higher thermal value. The white roofing material reflects direct sunlight and also cuts down on solar gain. The extensive glazing is thermally broken and shaded with overhangs and nearby foliage. Bedroom windows are further shaded by deep overhangs and horizontal, rather than vertical, orientations.

Designed for a steep sloping site, the Little John Residence is a large modern home set in a historic in-town neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The site overlooks the Ansley Golf Course, providing sweeping views of the surrounding landscape. The project comprises 6,000 square feet situated on three floors, together with an infinity edge pool and cabana that are situated at the center of the spatial organization. The owners desired a welcoming house for entertaining that could also serve as a quiet retreat from their hectic work schedules. The goal was to create a residence that reads simultaneously as home and resort. They wanted to take advantage of the unique site nestled between a private drive and public street with a dramatic view, creating a system of spaces that fluctuates between extroverted and introverted, erasing the boundary between inside and outside.

The design methodology focused on the integration of a completely transparent volume of public spaces and a more opaque linear spine of private spaces that reveals the dramatic slope of the site by initiating as a grounded element at the high point of the property, and terminating as a cantilevered form that projects from the front façade of the house, floating twenty five feet above grade. Both architectural systems serve to blend the interior and exterior environments, allowing the home to be visually open from the interior, while maintaining a sense of intimacy and privacy. This is achieved through careful attention to the massing and penetrations of the structure and by maximizing opportunities inherent to the existing site conditions such as orientation, terrain and foliage.

The plan is dominated by an open system of living, dining and kitchen spaces that wrap around an exterior courtyard, pool, and pool house, forming a fluid and integrated space for entertaining. The provision of natural light throughout the residence was a primary goal, leading to the development of dramatic two level walls of glass that wrap the courtyard. While moving through the house, the scale seamlessly transitions from grand to intimate. The system of private spaces is articulated as a linear volume wrapped in stained cypress siding that accentuates the linearity of the architectural form. This element emerges as the primary bedroom, which is grounded to the site at the rear of the property. As one moves towards the front of the house, the site falls away, and the cypress form rises, creating a wedge of semi-public spaces including the kitchen, keeping room, vertical circulation and foyer. The public spaces, including the living room, dining room and exterior courtyard spill out from the semi-public spaces, extending visually and spatially into the site, creating an ambiguous threshold between inside and outside. The structural system that defines the building transforms to reflect the transition from a grounded and solid volume to an elevated and cantilevered form by shifting from a bearing wall system to a structural steel frame, culminating with a space that is cantilevered 20 feet off the main building perimeter.

The finishes employed in this project further emphasize the contrast of solid and transparent, as well as the ambiguity between the interior and exterior realms. The exterior finish palate is read primarily through the language of contrast between large transparent glazed volumes and more intimately scaled solid forms. The palate is comprised largely of aluminum glazing, smooth stucco, stacked stone, stained cypress siding and exposed concrete. All of these exterior materials extend fluidly through the interior spaces, often separated by massive glazed walls that accentuate the continuity of surfaces and bathe the interior with natural light during the daytime.

At night, an inversions occurs as the house becomes a lantern that spills light onto the surrounding landscape.