Located in an apple orchard in Sonoma County, California, the contemporary Orchard House by Anderson Anderson Architecture alternates cast concrete, galvanized steel and floor-to-ceiling glass for a truly unique design reflective of its surroundings. This modern home is prefabricated using a repeated modular framework and standardized SIPS sandwich panel and prefabricated truss framing components. This approach to design was two benefits – a highly adaptable design, and decreased construction costs.
But don’t be fooled; this project didn’t just “go up.” The design involved a study of the surrounding agricultural landscape, and each individual tree dotting it. “True to the character of the orchard, the house is laid out as long sequences of interior and exterior courtyards, defined by the adjacent trees, affording long, metered views along the rectilinear and diagonal axes of the field,” according to Anderson Anderson Architecture. “The massive concrete walls align with the rows of tree trunks, while the open volumes of the rooms and exterior courts align with the open space between trees, affording a direct spatial continuity between house and landscape, figure and void.”
The home’s low profile and flat roof keep it comfortably beneath the treetops. Both inside and out, this single-storey house boasts modern, minimal simplicity – heated concrete slabs, raw concrete primary walls inside and out, and interior secondary walls and ceilings are finished in white drywall. Anderson Anderson Architecture.
