The Grasslands home was born out of and celebrates the beautiful but fragile grassland ecology of the Carmel Valley. Our client’s desire to actively simplify his lifestyle to the most essential elements inclusive of space clearly drove sensibilities in the design. In addition the home features a precision, derived from the client’s love of flight, a grounded-ness from his love of books and the love of his horse.

To meet the simplistic beauty of the scope, the home consists of three interconnected glass pavilions and a detached barn which wrap to the bowl shape of the land. The pavilions are comprised of a master suite, a library/living room, kitchen, and a meditation sanctuary; the barn, his horse and car.

The design focuses on preserving the delicate ecosystem of the surrounding grasslands, while concurrently incorporate views and maximize solar orientation. In support, the pavilions sit on the perimeter of an existing bowl shaped depression in the hillside. Three primary landscape walls run parallel to the topography, emphasizing the shape and spatial definition of the land as well as providing locations to anchor the structures. Pulled up and out of the landscape, the buildings jut over the anchor walls, hovering above the native grasses. In section, the land appears to flow through the pavilions, undisturbed and collaborative to the architecture.