Golden Residence

Honor Award - 2007 - The Americas Institute of Architects Birmingham Chapter
Honor Citation - 2007 - The Americas Institute of Architects Gulf State Region
Merit Award for residential - 2006 - The Americas Institute of Architects Alabama Chapter
Member Choice Award - 2006 - The Americas Institute of Architects Birmingham Chapter

The owners wanted their house to have a main level large enough to accommodate all communal spaces for their family of five, plus the master suite. The husband, a contractor, wanted a house that expressed his art; the wife was open to modern concepts, but wanted a home which looked more like a house than “a lunar landing capsule.” The architects responded with a trio of gabled pavilions, each housing basic functions: sleeping, living, and utility. The pavilions are carefully placed into and atop the site to capture views and frame an inner courtyard, which serves as the heart of the house. The stucco sleeping pavilion is a solid form of three stories plus an attic, recalling a traditional housing vernacular to establish the public image of the house. The stone, wood and glass service pavilion houses the kitchen, dining, laundry, carport and storage on one level with a guest suite above. The living pavilion is a single-story bridge of steel and glass, extending through the dining space and beyond to form a large screened porch among the trees. The orientation and arrangement of three simple forms, a delicate material mix and an open plan create an architecture simultaneously rooted into the site and elevated above it. Nature, hedge, wall and glass work together to capture and expand space. The resulting house creates multiple relations, visual and physical, that bridge room to room, pavilion to pavilion and house to nature.

Date of completion: 2006