Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects

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Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects

Information

  • Gross Built up Area: 7,200 sq ft
  • Project Location: Truckee
  • Country: USA
  • Engineering: Shaw Engineering
  • Structural Consultants: Linchpin Engineering
  • MEP Consultants: Sugarpine Engineering
  • Contractors: Glennwood Mountain Homes
  • Interior + Furniture: Rory Torrigiani. Natalie Zirbel
  • Photo Credits: Paul Hamill
  • Others: Electrical Engineer: Sugarpine Engineering, Geotechnical Engineer: NV5, Lighting: Faulkner Architects
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Excerpt: Viewfinder House by Faulkner Architects is a residential project that follows a simple two part scheme to align with the surrounding view. The house features two elevated rectangular boxes with recessed apertures, enclosed by a red cedar rain screen. The boxes open to the Pacific Crest southwest, and a covered porch provides outdoor access, enhancing connection within the family.

Project Description

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

[Text as submitted by architect] “Can all of the rooms enjoy this view?” was the client’s question on their first site walk. They were looking at the Pacific Crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. This question formed the seed of the conceptual approach to the design of the house. The design team organized the family-driven program of 7,200 square feet into a simple two-part scheme. 

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill
Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

The lower-level base follows the street geometry, while the upper levels are twisted slightly to align with the view. The steel base protects the structure from deep winter snows common in the Sierra Nevada and allows the lower-level form to disappear into the grade on the high side of the topography.

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill
Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

Viewfinder is built as two elevated rectangular boxes with deeply recessed apertures focused on a singular view. Sheathed in a red cedar rain screen and closed on three sides, the boxes open to the Pacific Crest to the southwest. A covered porch wraps this exposure of the house, allowing access to the house from outside and helping keep the family connected. Open to the landscape on the view side, the porch is concealed behind a full-height screen on the street side.

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

Light filters through the spaces between the boards of the displaced rainscreen and animates the space behind. A ceiling of unfinished cedar boards takes the form of a soft inverted triangle that runs continuously across the plan and slopes up to the edges, allowing clerestories to the east. The ceiling extends out over the porch like a large lens hood, protecting the glass doors from weather and shielding the interior from bright afternoon sun.

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill
Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

A triangular cutout in the roof relieves the long expanse of sloped wood, like a crack in timber. The space aligns with a similarly shaped glass floor light in the deck that allows a sliver of sun to penetrate deeply into the form. Children can also be easily monitored in the pool below. The lower level is for play, fitted with a bunk room and an exercise and game room that open onto the pool, which is situated to reflect the view beyond. The spoils from the pool and house excavation were retained on site and used to support the terraced turf area.

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill
Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

Mechanical systems use high-efficiency boilers to fire radiantly heated floors embedded in lightweight concrete and surfaced with granite flooring. Continuous glass doors open to allow natural cooling via prevailing westerly breezes in summer that flow through the eastern clerestory windows. Specifying enhanced-efficiency glazing and insulation, in addition to earth-sheltering the lower level to the north and east, achieved a 14.5% improvement above the strict California energy code.

Viewfinder House | Faulkner Architects
© Paul Hamill

Arrival to the house was carefully considered, with an angled access drive that slips onto the high side of the site and affords the first view of the Pacific Crest as one reaches the top of the hill. The intentions of the design are clear from this approach: the house gives its undivided attention to the snow-covered mountains, like a camera body twisted on a tripod to capture a distant perspective.

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