9 North Bank Road

is a family home located near Mazama, in the North Cascades mountain range of Washington State (USA), a vast area of outstanding beauty with ancient conifer forests, lakes and glacial valleys. Our client wanted to build a comfortable contemporary home that would withstand the extreme year-round conditions and negotiate the dense pine forest. 

It was important to develop a project that blended smoothly with its surroundings while focusing on design quality. There were many examples of local buildings that have stood the test of time. A simple barn caught our eye for its simplicity of expression and economy of form. We decided that the exterior of the home could adopt a similar shape to manage the climatic conditions.

In order to deal with heavy snowfalls during winter and intense sunshine in the summer months, the exterior is rugged and simple, yet with careful detailing, smoothly blending with local architecture. We used pre-weathered cladding and a highly insulated wall construction. 

It was important to establish an intermediate relationship between the home and the outside, so we created screened porches that are part of the building volume and connected the internal spaces with the exterior. Internally, the home is composed of a series of interlocking spaces which allow light in from above the forest canopy. The material palette was carefully considered to increase the reflection of light from above.  

The home is slightly elevated from ground level to protect it from snowfall. This height transition is managed by external landscaped ramps held in corten steel trays. The earth ramps are seeded with native undergrowth plant species that bring the sense of the natural world right into the home itself.