The Crook – Cup – Bow – Twist home, located in Nicasio, California, USA received its name for three distinct reasons. First and foremost the sequence of words refer to the various categories of lumber deformations as seen in the outside louvers installed horizontally on the home for both privacy and sun protection. The louvers are made of multiple rows of misshapen wood slats that create geometric and yet random patterns. The second reason the Crook – Cup – Bow – Twist home received its name was for the way the home itself twists to follow the lay of land as it takes advantage of the sun’s position for solar collection. The third reason for the home’s name is the latent potential energy of all the natural systems towards movement that Schwartz and Architecture where able to take advantage of through the design process. A young family located in the city purchased the site as a quiet weekend and vacation retreat where they could get back in touch with nature and the brief for Schwartz and Architecture was to create a home for them that they could use as a city antidote and a base camp for exploration.
The location of the home is midway on the slope where the land rises on two sides and falls on the other two. When the sun is at its strongest, it faces towards the hillside and these two features determined the orientation of the home
After determining the best possible orientation, the architects continued to analyze the site to create the best ebb and flow of routes and zones the family would use within the various slopes of the existing landscape. The negotiation of natural and architectural as well as solar determined the final footprint and shape for the home.
