American firm Faulkner Architects has designed Burnt Cedar as a full-time lakefront beach house for a car passionate family of four in Incline Village, a small town in the state of Nevada on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.
“Prior to being pulled up the hill to flumes and rails destined for Virginia City, trees were staged here, as the mountains around the lakeshore were logged during the silver mining years of the 1860s,” explains lead architect Greg Faulkner.
Set into a neighborhood originally built in the 1950s and bordered by houses to the sides and rear, the house takes a simple box form, half-buried into the slope. Its full-height glazing creates a loft-like floor plan, with double-height living spaces that characterize the dwelling’s distinct aesthetic.
“The clients requested a space that felt like the landscape and maintained a feeling inside of being outside in the light and shadow play of the sixty to ninety-foot Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines that populate the lakeshore,” Faulkner continues.
The minimalist, contemporary pavilion-like home is constructed from the classic Modernist material palette of concrete, steel, wood, and glass; its open-plan layout meets the client’s wish to let the scenic blue lake, pine trees, and sky views stand out on their own. Perforated wood ceilings and acoustical plaster walls soften the sounds of the concrete and glass pavilion-like house.
“An underground garage is excavated under the house with level access to the street, a must in this snowy climate for the family’s eclectic car collection,” adds the firm.
The team behind Faulkner Architects is known for their impressive residential projects that prioritize closeness with nature, modular forms using raw materials, and an interplay of light and dark.
