Box House, 2006
Telluride, Colorado
Associate Architect: Bialosky + Partners Architects
Landscape Design: Edwina von Gal + Co
Engineers: Silman Associates
Photography: Paul Warchol
AdditIonal Photography: Brett Schreckengost (first image only)
Situated in the mountains in southwestern Colorado, this four- thousand-square-foot residence evolved out of a desire to create the simplest of forms- a wooden box- set at the edge of an aspen forest. The structure is composed of two separate wood-clad volumes connected by two levels of outdoor decks. The larger, main house emerges from the aspen grove, while the second box is embedded within the aspens.
On each floor- one interior wooden box is set within the larger volume- there are no other interior walls. The house is in essence a box within a box. The sliding panels and doors concealed within the interior boxes operate to define the different rooms, from the master bedroom to the master bath to the upstairs study. Privacy from room to room is maintained, although the box can open up completely to create rooms that flow from one zone to the next. The exterior volume has hinged wooden shutters that frame the outdoor decks, which open up to create exterior spaces that extend into the landscape. When the client is away, the box literally closes up, shuttering itself in.
The house frames the exterior, giving you a new way of looking at the landscape and surrounding mountain range. As you drive up to the house through the aspen forest, the front range is framed through the lower-level deck. Walking through the house, you catch the views to this front range in both the living room and master bedroom. But as you go up the main stairs to the upper level you ascend through the trees, and the upper deck is in the tree- tops, with a pair of aspens emerging from the deck below. At this point you begin to notice the striking back range, and as you climb up to the roof deck above the guesthouse, the mountain range is fully in view. The house allows you to experience the 270-degree panorama, the view unfolding as you walk through the building.