base anchors the building, and lighter wood framing floats above. The house extrudes across the hilly ground plane so that the main floor is at ground level on one end and floats 10 feet above grade at the other end. The stone garden follows the natural grade and slips under the center part of the house. The rain garden allows rainwater to sluice through the boulders and run down to a wetland pond. A Live-and-Work Environment The third project Faith described was the complete opposite of the second one. It is located on 400 acres of coastal agricultural land in Bodega Bay, California, and the Pacific Ocean is visible in the distance. A sculptor owns the land, but a rancher uses it. The sculptor asked O’Neill Rose Architects to create studios to house visiting artists for his art colony, with an existing barn with a gallery and communal kitchen serving as the colony’s center. Each one-person studio had to abide by the migrant workers’ housing rules, which meant they could only be occupied for 90 days at a time. After that, they have to be disassembled. The primary building materials were taken from the sculptor’s nearby sculpture yard. They included steel sheet piling, heavy timber and bolted connections. The sculptor moves the huts to a new location every 90 days with a forklift and a small crane that also move sculptures. “We always want our buildings to have a conversation with the landscape,” said Faith. “For this project, we created the five little huts from kits that can be put together to create art studios. People can camp wherever they want on the land, which is hilly and bold, and each placement creates a different conversation. The buildings are very gestural, and they are almost like characters. Their relationship to the land depends on where they are located. A llama guards some of the cows, so one studio has a flat roof with eaves that touch the ground like ramps. That way, the llama can climb up and survey the land.” The small studios have a minimal footprint on the land, and their size encourages artists to spend most of their time outside. Idaho’s Challenge Architects have an ongoing opportunity to redefine the types of homes they work on. The pandemic, climate change and rapid population growth are all changing the parameters of what a home is. The idea of homes and how they should function was called into high focus during the pandemic, with people confined in tight spaces that had to function for multiple uses. Many people experienced isolation and familial frustration, but they are now finding new opportunities for remote work that are changing the rules for how and where they can live. As Idaho’s population continues to grow, applying smart-growth principles is the best way to preserve Idaho’s beauty and quality of life. Implementing ideas such as making cities denser to create walkable neighborhoods and distinct, attractive communities can prevent urban sprawl; likewise, buildings that use sustainable materials and practices can minimize the built environment’s impact. Where design meets you. cushingterrell.com 35
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