Situated on a hilly bluff in Arlington, Virginia, the site is within close proximity to the Spout Run ravine and Potomac River. The client desired to transform their labyrinthian home to one which was shaped by their raison d’être of reaching towards nature. The project involved reconstituting the 1970’s house in its original footprint, removing a conflagration of roofs, and spatially reordering the house.
Carved into the steep site, an L-shaped rampart-like volume of stucco roots the house to the site while cradling a conceptual wood and glass tent. Floor plates were incised to reveal open multi-story spaces that weave the surrounding forest canopy to the circulation and living spaces as one ascends and descends through the house. A cantilevered planar roof hovering above a clerestory unifies interior and exterior spaces and extends the 5 20 house to nature.