Though nearly 50 years have passed since Louis Kahn’s death, in 1974, you sense the aura of that architectural master when visiting this brooding yet sumptuous new house perched on Madrone Ridge in Sonoma County. What comes to mind isn’t a specific building by Kahn so much as his approach to the rooted art of building, the creed that “Archi­tecture is the thoughtful making of spaces.”

Copper-clad pavilions overlook a valley in Sonoma County. (top of page and above). Photo © Joe Fletcher, click to enlarge.