Hacker Architects escapes to the desert for its latest Oregon retreat

A composition of box volumes and opaque and transparent surfaces form a chic family retreat in the desert landscape ofCentral Oregon

It has this feeling that youre in a place thats brand new,architect Corey Martin says of Central Oregon, the location for his Portland-based firm Hacker Architects recent residential getaway project. Its surprising to think of a place in the middle of anAmerican state(even if wildly different geographically to Portland, alllush and green and rolling to the west of the Cascades, dryer and flatter to the east)as brand new; though comparatively, and geologically, it is, but thats part of the magic of the designers architectural approach. Rather than start with the basic brief four bedrooms, for a couple and their extended family Martin and his team, Nic Smith and Jeff Ernst, started with the landscape and its ideas.

The building itself tries to edit and frame and take the experience of the landscape visually apart when youre inside it,he continues. The form starts with a basic box whose elements become articulated and separated and reunited with long swaths of cedar siding. These opaque surfaces work in concert with massive open walls of windows divided only by the thinnest of frames, and smaller apertures, all of which stack together to create a rhythm of constant enclosure and reveal.

Both exterior and interior walls are made out of cedar, so as to promote both a visual continuity and a sense oftactility, and the only other colors are white and black.The architecture is in service of looking and in particular, looking outward. Youre getting forced to look at the sky, and youre getting layering that lets you consider all these pieces of the landscape at different times, at different qualities of light,Hacker says.

Its got this freshness in quality of light and smells,Hacker continues, describing the relative youth of the local volcanoes. And thats the conceptual heart of this project. Its not about finding what you thought you were looking for; its about what you end up seeing.

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Hacker Architects escapes to the desert for its latest Oregon retreat - Wallpaper*

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December 16, 2019 at 12:48 am by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Architects