For a San Francisco couple seeking a weekend retreat, a 4.5 acre site in Timber Cove, situated on the Sonoma coastline, offers redwood forests and a creek flowing to the nearby Pacific Ocean.

For the western edge of this deeply wooded site, we proposed a simple home that creates complex relationships with the richness of the site. Towering redwoods, sloped, wet earth, and the views of the sky framed by the trees directly determined an initial massing strategy. To respond to the wet terrain, the home sits on a platform that floats the home above the ground. As the hill slopes downward, the height of the platform above grade increases and the volume of the house increases upward. As a response to the clustering of the redwoods, the mass of the house rotates slightly and nestles the home into the protective canopy of the vast trees.

Finally, in deference to verticality of the tree trunks, the house clusters together three simple volumes. Two interior volumes, one for public program and one for private program, bracket the exterior volume. This exterior volume is the entry access point, a view connector, and a light well.