It has been a while since I shown you a modern architecture house, so I take the plunge today with a house build on a 40-acre lot in Idaho.
Architect Tom Kundig with his client Jan McFarland Cox, an artist and designer, planned and refined the Outpost house for a decade. To stick to her $1 million budget over that amount of time, the house had to be edited. Overall, I think the house is beautiful. I enjoy the no-frills decor.
The house is made of carefully installed concrete-block exterior walls. This means that the exterior of the house is pretty carefree. Free maintenance is the ultimate luxury. And I think it is more ecological to build with no-maintenance required materials that last a lifetime. A wall garden adds warmth to the outside.
Unusual features inside include a fireplace with a 5-foot opening, kitchen counters almost a foot deeper surrounded on 2 sides by wall windows and immense windows in a cold climate.
I question her wisdom of not painting plaster walls and not finishing the recycled fir to cover all the floors and the few interior walls since it seems to be that the everyday cleaning process must be more demanding. And we paint or add a finish to surface so they last longer. It seems more like a building economy than a rational decision.
Read the rest of the story on The New Times.
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Nathalie Rivard
January 8, 2009 at 17:24Wow, what a stunning house!
I love that it almost feels you live outside. It is really integrated into its environment.
One day, I’ll have a house like this! 🙂
At Home with Kim Vallee
January 8, 2009 at 17:43Nathalie: This is the style of house for which I may leave the city.
Daneen Pray
August 28, 2009 at 16:23This is one of the many creations that I have admired. I love the nature and scenery aspect to all that he builds around. I absolutly love it! It would be a dream to own/ stay in something that he has worked on.