Lookout House by Faulkner Architects

The concept of truly knowing a place – from its natural ecologies and tree species to its geological history and climatic conditions – before putting pen to paper, sits at the crux of Faulkner Architects’ approach to place making.

“When you’re familiar with a place, through research or personal experience, you know things like the tree and rock types and when the snow comes,” says the firm’s founder Greg Faulkner. He continues, saying that this knowledge facilitates an “intimate and potent connection”, which gleans a built intervention that is more intrinsic with its environment. “It will have that sense of place that the client initially fell in love with.”

“When you’re familiar with a place, through research or personal experience, you know things like the tree and rock types and when the snow comes,” says the firm’s founder Greg Faulkner.

As it happens, Faulkner knows Placer County well: one of the firm’s two offices is in Truckee and he recently built his own home with Olson Kundig not far from Lookout House. Nevertheless, this project warranted the same deep dive into place that any other would – a process that ultimately led to Faulkner Architects being chosen for the job over other local contenders. “When we interview for projects, we tend to overprepare,” says Faulkner. “We completed a full site analysis and highlighted the attributes and constraints to the clients, and I believe we won this project because we’d really considered those things.”

Consisting of volcanic sediment from ancient flows and strewn with boulders up to five metres in diameter, the existing conditions heavily dictated the home’s siting and footprint. Interestingly, the site is adjacent to a neighbourhood ski run, which has been embraced in the design through a three-metre-wide opening in the rear concrete retaining walls, allowing the sloped grade to pour into the building form. During the ski season, snow gradually fills this volume and “the kids can ski right up to the living room doors,” says Faulkner.

“We completed a full site analysis and highlighted the attributes and constraints to the clients, and I believe we won this project because we’d really considered those things.”

Beyond this point, the form follows the contours of the land, encompassing three levels that descend with the slope of the mountain. Monolithic concrete walls made from local sand and aggregate build a ground form that extends to roofs to enclose space, while full-height openings with glazed sliding doors open the home to the prevailing south-westerly breezes. The interior, which features a largely unified palette of concrete and walnut, “feels like what you expect it to be because you’re seeing the inside of the form,” says Faulkner. Lastly, red glass suggests the colour of cooling magma, referencing the site’s geology and bathing the entry, central stair and a section of the primary suite in a warm glow.

As the name suggests, the setting of Lookout House is integral to its identity. This reference is, however, less about the exceptional vistas and the home’s siting at the base of Lookout Mountain, and perhaps more telling of how the 20-degree slope and dual aspect – to the peak above and valley below – has shaped the dwelling’s structure and, in turn, the experience of this piece of architecture. “It’s really about having the form react to the slope and then using that to allow for this human interaction to the place,” comments Faulkner. This interface is strengthened again by the design of the access point as an intentional and usable space. “It’s not leftover; it’s large and directional, which makes you feel like you’re going somewhere – not in a maze but a path in the woods. All those things lead to sensing the overall volume, how you move through it and how it feels.”

Aside from “a wonderful excuse to assemble great materials”, Lookout House was a process of learning.

Aside from “a wonderful excuse to assemble great materials”, Lookout House was a process of learning. “After this project, I fully realised the power of having small and intimate places inside a house,” says Faulkner, referring specifically to the sun nook on the ground floor. Punched out from the eastern elevation and with full-height glazing, this compact space is only large enough for one or two people, yet it feels like a prize. During heavy snowfall, this niche becomes a protected indoor space from which to bask in the morning light and watch the flakes melt against the glass. “It’s important to have these moments. They cause us to be introspective and view ourselves in the landscape and in this built place.”

This contemplation speaks directly to Faulkner Architects’ reverence for built contributions that pay deference to the landscapes within which they exist. And if the ripple effects of that approach lead to moments of refuge and prospect both spectacular and quotidian, that’s an interest well worth pursuing.

Architecture by Faulkner Architects. Interior design by CLL. Concept Lighting Lab. Build by Rickenbach Development and Construction.