Snøhetta and Nicole Hollis Design a Sinuous House in Silicon Valley
Photo: Joe Fletcher
How do you design a house that feels at once foreign to and completely of a place? That was the challenge posed by a husband and wife eager to break convention in Silicon Valley. “They wanted a home that felt like it had landed from somewhere else but also like it had always been there,” recalls Craig Dykers of the global architecture firm Snøhetta, whose unexpected updates to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the French Laundry had caught the couple’s attention. Outside-the-box ideas were exactly what they had in mind. “These clients had an intuitive sensitivity to shape and line,” says Dykers. “They were hoping for a house that wasn’t just about plain modularity or a rectilinear plan.”
To meet the multilayered mandate, Snøhetta first undertook a detailed study of the landscape: some five acres distinguished by scenic views and complex contours. Inspired by those topographical idiosyncrasies, Dykers conceived a pair of curving volumes that appear to emerge from the earth, one swooping over the other. Embedded within those unique forms, however, is a deeply pragmatic floor plan—many of the rooms bear rectilinear footprints—with ample wall space for the couple’s art collection and a tidy division of public and private spaces. Whereas the lower of the two sinews contains the kitchen, dining, and living areas, the upper holds the couple’s primary suite and office. The additional four bedrooms get their own wing, linked by a glass-enclosed walkway. And the couple’s prized cars take pride of place in the state-of-the art basement garage.
Given the monumentality of the architecture, Snøhetta took care to introduce tactile materials at a human scale. “Small things become very important,” Dykers emphasizes of the detail-oriented approach. Located at the intersection of those two principal curves, the broad front door, for instance, is a bespoke feat of glass, its milky expanse (full-height, extra-wide) reminiscent of metal leaf. In lieu of an ordinary knob, the team devised a discreet pull so carefully calibrated that it opens, Dykers notes, “with a touch as light as a feather.” Inside, oak paneling brings geometric order to sculptural volumes. Outside, triangular tiles, some of them protruding, lend a mottled pattern and three-dimensional character to façades. Blurr inginterior and exterior, meanwhile, are the sheets of colorful dichroic glass that obscure the primary bath, lower sleeping wing, and formal living and dining rooms. “You get a constant rainbow effect,” Dykers says of the prismatic panes. “It’s always changing with the angle of your eye and the angle of the sun.”
Natural light becomes a material unto itself, as window walls cast bright planes across rooms and overhead apertures bathe spaces (even water closets) in diffuse glows. All set a luminous stage for the furnishings, selected by AD100 designer Nicole Hollis. Just as the curves of the architecture lead your eye from one place to another, so too does the dynamic mix of furniture, much of it custom made. Ethereal Michael Anastassiades ceiling lights spiral in the informal dining area; a Pae White commission sparkles in the formal dining room; and a built-in sofa anchors a double-height living area. One powder room is slathered in decorative plaster; another is lined in a Damien Hirst wallpaper of prescription pills. Wonders, in other words, abound—from a Johanna Grawunder table (seemingly afloat, atop an acrylic base) to a mirror-polished Vincenzo De Cotiis bar. “This was unlike most homes that we work on,” says Hollis. “You really had to wrap your head around the geometries of the house”
Twists and turns you might say are the very essence of the home. “It is better to want what you get than get what you want,” says Dykers, for whom the goal was always to satisfy but also surprise his intrepid clients. He, of course, could clearly see the finished project—which also encompasses the new gardens and guesthouse—from the get-go, the final result bearing close resemblance to his early sketch. “You can almost feel it was drawn onto the landscape.”
This story appears in AD’s December issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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