Most houses with spectacular views are at the end of a very long road. But the payoff, in both prospect and refuge, is often worth the extra challenges in construction and access. Architects Lonn Combs and Rona Easton know this particularly well. Two of their most recent projects are, coincidentally, at the terminus of the same winding rural road in southern Berkshire County, a verdant and culture-rich corridor in western Massachusetts. One, dubbed House Four, was completed in 2018. The most recent, House Six, followed. Call it a mini-compound, EASTON COMBS-style.
That style, while not adhering to any formal signature, is one that the husband-and-wife team, a 2012 Design Vanguard firm, has been chiseling with precision since the founding of the studio in 2004, focusing on material innovations, passive systems, bioclimatic design, and refined detailing. Following a few years at the American Academy in Rome in the early 2010s, the couple settled in the Berkshires. They purchased a property with a 1970s house and reused the foundation, designing their own home and studio (House Five) as a model and a calling card. Since then, they have deepened their roots in the community, with local residential commissions that reflect the clarity of the studio’s mission. The net zero House Four, comprising two black metal-clad volumes connected by a bridge, was designed for a client who wanted to cut her dependence on fossil fuels.
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