This home is called Forest Pavilion, because pavilions are partly open, and partly closed. They provide shelter, without forgetting place. In a classic pavilion, you often can’t tell if you’re inside or outside; like this home, they are an exercise not in “or” but in “and”. The homeowners, avid gardeners and professional landscapers, prompted the team to work along the grain of the site.
Often, when building on raw land, an acre or two are leveled, a driveway is plowed, and forest bed is converted into grass. This home cherishes the old douglas fir surrounding it, getting as close as possible. It follows the site’s contours—knolls, hollows, hot spots, stumps. It was carefully placed to retain as many trees as possible. The disturbance of the existing forest was held to five feet from the house; in some cases the house is cut into the hill and rests against the forest. The spongy ground, made from decades of pine needles, retained its bounce. The driveway is a narrow gravel path, following the path opened by the boulders and maples.
Residential architecture walks a tightrope between high design and easy, everyday function. The challenge this project seeks to address is to create a home that is resilient to the natural messiness of everyday life; people, clutter, movement—without surrendering its design quality. In fact, this home is amplified by it.
A second innovative piece is the home’s approach to the abundant rain in the greater Seattle Area. Instead of resisting the rain, the home welcomes it to be part of the experience. The covered walkway amplifies the sound of rain, and a dramatic downspout turns weather into water feature by nakedly guiding the runoff down the face of a wall. he butterfly roof terminates in extended heavy gutter waterfalls that direct rain to mossy site boulders - turning to amazing ice sculptures in the winter.
The home was designed with nature first – use what is needed, conserve materials and energy, and fit into the site with minimal impacts. The home is as small as possible, focusing larger spaces for gathering and retreat spaces as small as possible. Acknowledging forestry leadership, all building framing is FSC certified, using engineered materials to reduce waste. Nearly all primary materials and systems are made within 500 miles of the site, and high performance wall and window systems and radiant heat floors reduce energy demands. Several items were also reused innovatively in this project, for example a custom planting workspace, tucked at the edge of the garage, was made using reused siding and metal, and the firepit was created from an old steel cut-off from a natural gas tank.
