CAMPout

Lake Tahoe, California

A San Francisco family with a passion for mountaineering asked us to help them expand a property near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada. Their extreme mountaineering activities include ice climbing, winter camping and backcountry skiing. The site came with an existing guesthouse and unrealized main house. Located on a North facing slope, the site looks down to Martis Valley and up to the south at an 8,000 foot extinct volcano through a natural screen of 100-year-old Jeffery and sugar pine trees. The 3,800-square-foot program included four sleeping rooms, a gathering space, garage, and private outdoor space.

Dug into the slope, sleeping areas wrap a courtyard earning privacy from neighbors that surround the property. The family gathering space is a south facing concrete pavilion that connects the courtyard to the distant view beyond. A thin steel shed roof pitches up to open the interior to the southern sun and views to ski runs on the mountain. Insulated concrete walls and a roof of steel and aggregate covered fire-rated membrane combine with laminated steel sash glazing to form a fire-resistive shell.

Comprehensive rigor and consistent deployment of materials based on building sized decision making instill a sense of calm and connection for the whole assemblage and ultimately the family. The material palette is derived from the surrounding context of basalt boulders and sugar pines that cover the forest floor with a mat of rust colored pine needles. Glazing is limited at the exterior interface with the combustible surroundings and maximized in the courtyard, where the light and screen of the pine forest safely connects with the interior.