New Home 3700 sf, 2 bedroom, 2 bath single family residence with 950 sf of unfinished space to house 2 future bedrooms, 1 bath and entertainment room.  Structure is sheathed with different colors of synthetic stucco.  Residence was designed and constructed for a young couple building their first home on a limited budget.  The residence is located on a steep sloping mountainous site and required blasting to locate the house into the granite substrate.

Design Goals  

“I believe in an ‘emotional architecture.’  It is very important for human kind that architecture should move by its beauty; if there are many equally valid technical solutions to a problem, the one which offers the user a message of beauty and emotion, that one is architecture.”  -  Luis Barragan.

The design of this residence was inspired by the client’s love of Mediterranean hillside architecture.  The question became how to build a ‘Mediterranean’ house in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.  The first design goal was the distillation of the uniqueness of Mediterranean architecture and its connection with the clients.  We were able to arrive at the following qualities that would influence the design:  use of vibrant contextual color, arrangement of planar surfaces and the creation of outdoor rooms, introduction of light from various sources and heights.

A second design goal was to minimize impact to the site and to views from the adjacent neighbors.  The residence was sited into the hillside to minimize the impact of its size, and colors and materials were selected to harmonize with the surrounding environment.  Windows were located to frame canyon and mountain views, including the Indian Peaks, and avoid direct views of neighbor’s homes.  Native vegetation was re-introduced after the disruption of construction.

A third design goal was to demonstrate a client’s limited budget need not compromise the quality of thought and design put into the residence, but should instead inspire.  The challenge was to provide a high level of design, finish and flexibility on a limited budget.  

Completed in1995.