The original site of this home featured a majestic redwood grove down the hill, which became a fundamental inspiration for our design. We chose to embrace the grove by preserving the existing trees and reinforcing the canopy with additional plantings.

As part of this exploration, we studied ways to engage the vegetation through a series of courtyards. These courtyards vary in scale, offering different experiences, from the intimate, up-close setting of a small courtyard adjacent to the study, to larger courtyards in the motor court and next to the living room. Each space is designed to seamlessly intermingle the inhabited zones of the home with the forest of redwoods, creating a fluid connection between architecture forest and water.

The existing redwoods engage the building directly, penetrating the wooden flitch column structure and interrupting the otherwise consistent architectural rhythm. This rhythm, set forth by the building, is intended as an homage to the surrounding forest. The goal of the design is to create architecture that coexists with the forest, disappearing and reappearing within it, without calling undue attention to itself.