Strawberry Field
This house, sited on a modest ridge in a field of wild strawberries, lies just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The owners sought to build a simple, unique house on an extremely limited budget. The open plan combines the client's affinity for the Southern vernacular dogtrot house prototype with a desire for natural day-lighting throughout.
Economy of means was paramount to this process. A roof and walls fabricated from structural insulated panels bear on a wooden platform-framed floor bolted to a panel-formed cast-in-place concrete vessel. Roof panels eight feet on center are supported by a wooden skeleton of parallel strand lumber beams and posts integrated into the structural panel walls. The four-foot roof overhang shields a continuous band of clearstory glazing from hot southern sun while admitting direct sunlight during winter months.
The house is laid out as a bar for even daylight distribution, views, and privacy. Centered on the veranda opening, perpendicular to the house, a future pool extends out into the land aligning with Swift Run Gap in the mountain range beyond.
Date of completion: 2001
ECO House, Kelburn House, , ELB House, Murray Street Loft, Architectural Visualization. Modern House.
Projects by Jim Rounsevell Architecture + Photography
