Shenandoah House by SCHAUM/SHIEH unfolds over a lush slope of the Allegheny Mountains in western Virginia, part of the Appalachian Range. The 2,750-square-foot home and writer’s retreat was built for a creative couple with deep ties to the area’s landscape. The open, expansive views and rolling surroundings, paired with the challenges presented by a steep site, inform the overall design.
“The hillside as an old problem in house design was a major motivator. Our clients knew many hilly sites from growing up in the area and their time in Greece. We wanted to intervene gently but opportunistically into the hill,” explains SCHAUM/SHIEH co-principal Rosalyne Shieh. “They wanted a house that fit organically but was not derived from the local vernacular materials or solutions in a straightforward way. We focused on the hill, the seasons, the distant view, and the intimate life of the site.”
SCHAUM/SHIEH connected with the couple at a dinner party hosted by mutual friends, where one husband, a renowned anthropologist, unveiled sketches of a home he dreamed up based on his travels in Athens, where he spends a significant amount of time for fieldwork. A conversation developed from the drawing. Keeping that dinner conversation in mind while starting from scratch with SCHAUM/SHIEH, that night’s drawing informed several broad inspirations for the final home: a long, airy plan that embeds organically into the topography.
The final home organizes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a dining room, living room, study, and garage along a single line that follows the contours of the hilltop site. Rooms extend out from this central line, some embedding into the hillside and others facing the views to the horizon. This stretched plan, where rooms resemble irregular pods connected by a single corridor, creates pockets for gardens and outdoor nooks between each room, on both sides of the home.
“We discovered that by doubling the ridgeline and rounding the peak we could create a softness that reflects the sloped surroundings,” explains SCHAUM/SHIEH co-principal Troy Schaum. “It seemed appropriate on the hillside and took what was a simple, more functional logic and grounded it in the dynamic, undulating nature of the site.”
The stretched plan purposefully eschews cantilevers and other common reactions to hilltop topography in favor of a more subtle, organic response to the landscape. “We didn’t have the inclination to make a dramatic use of the steepness with a cantilever, and we didn’t want to flatten any portion of the site to erase the slope, so we decided to build along the contours as much as we could,” says Shieh.
This layout is connected by a gray metal roof whose undulating surface emphasizes the lines and volumes of the surrounding slopes. “The rolling hills of the Allegheny Mountains in that area of the Shenandoah Valley have such a soft, gentle feeling,” says Shieh. “They are like a well worn pair of corduroys—full of relief and detail, but a soft relief.”
This sense of soft relief also informs the home’s material palette: The roof joins pliability with the durability necessary for the area’s seasonal shifts. Built from insulated stucco, the body of the home fuses the smooth, white finish of seaside Greek architecture with materials like the Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems (EIFS) cladding system, used locally on small commercial buildings, like gas stations.
The windows that frame either end of the 120-foot-long hall create a telescope effect, focusing at one end on the dense forest and the other on the surrounding meadow. The windows both frame the site and the interspersed gardens that slide between the rooms. They also literally open up and create physical connections down the steps to the landscape. On the uphill side, simple clerestories create a connection to the treetops and sunset over the ridge.
Inside, the folds of the roof inform the organization and detail of each room. No lights or other features interrupt the ceilings; instead, lighting emerges through slots at the ceiling edge and on the quasi-furniture objects that provide texture across the home.
These custom objects take on much of the interior materiality: one is wood, one stone, and one concrete. Throughout, the local use of soapstone influences many of the stone highlights, such as the hearths and wood storage, while bamboo clads the sprawling floor.
“We want to make projects that can open up possibilities through their organizational and aesthetic logics. We are not invested in a particular style for its own sake,” says Schaum of Shenandoah House. “This project shows how a simple organization that is worked through in an engaged way with the client and site can open up those kinds of opportunities in design,” says Shieh.
Team:
Architect: SCHAUM/SHIEH
Photography: Naho Kubota, Adam Rosen
Design team: Troy Schaum, Rosalyne Shieh, Giorgio Angelini, Andrea Brennan, Tucker
Douglas, Ane Gonzalez
Contracto: Blue Ridge Green - Jonathan Kuntz
Structural: Truesdell Engineering - Jordan Truesdell, PE
Material Used:
Main Bath
1. Custom Corian Counters
2. Dal-tile floors and walls
3. Kohler Cimarron Toilet
4. Kohler Caxton Sinks
5. Delta Tristan Plumbing Fixtures
Main Bedroom
1. Rakks Aluminum Shelves
2. Custom Cherry Cabinets
3. Flooring - Plyboo Stiletto, Brushed Pearl
Kitchen
1. Custom Maple Counters
2. Custom Maple Cabinets
3. Kitchen Sink - Kohler Cape Dory
4. Kitchen Faucet - Grohe K7
5. Samsung Appliances
6. Flooring - Plyboo Stiletto, Brushed Pearl
Dinning
1. Custom Maple Counters
2. Custom Maple Cabinets
3. Flooring - Plyboo Stiletto, Brushed Pearl
Guest Bath 1 and 2
1. Dal-tile floors and walls
2. Kohler Cimarron Toilet
3. Kohler Caxton Sinks
4. Custom Corian Counters
Living Room
1. Pickled White Bamboo Floors
2. Ardex Skimmed Fireplace
3. Soapstone Hearth/Firewood Box
4. Fireplace Heat & Glo Exclaim
5. Flooring - Plyboo Stiletto, Brushed Pearl
Exterior
1. Custom Powdercoated Rails
2. Marvin Windows and Sliding Doors - “Integrity” Series
3. Thermory Wood Deck
4. EIFS Facade
5. Custom Powder-coated Window Surrounds
6. Exterior Lights - Sonneman Drift Wall Sconce
