In an area of intense development overlooking the Aspen Valley, where many 20,000-square-feet-plus houses are built, the site for this house is clearly visible from the town of Aspen. The house, at 9,100 square feet, may be half the size of its neighbors, but its still a large structure, and the architect’s goal was to keep it camouflaged from all vantage points.
Design concept and solution: Minimizing the visual impact of the structure was the idea, and to accomplish that the architect used four separate stealth strategies. The first of these was to minimize the apparent massing, which is curved and cut back in such a way that the outline is broken up and the true size of the house hidden from all angles. The second strategy was to keep the roof as low as possible. A simple mono-pitch was chosen and developed to minimize the apparent height of the structure. This roof has deep overhangs that shade the glass, so there is no tell-tale glare and the glass appears invisible. The third strategy was to bury the house into the hillside and allow a line of existing trees to remain between the house and the view. Finally, copper, Cor-ten steel, and dark brown stucco were chosen to lower the “visual temperature” of the house and to keep it in the background visibly. This works both in summer and winter. Rock-faced retaining walls, which appear a bit jarring at present, match the site stone and will soon be covered with vines to further diminish the house’s appearance.
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