A new house in the town of Waimea, 3,000 ft above the Kona coast of the Big Island.
Accessed from the street above by a taunt pedestrian bridge, three tray-like floors shade a largely glass facade while cascading down the hillside. Punctuated by vertical volumes and voids that provide circulation and views through multiple floors. The design alludes strongly to a kind of Northern California modernism – Sea Ranch cross bred with Eichler (meaningful for a client with strong family connections to the Bay Area architecture community) – but configured as a vertical stack to fit a tight site and affording distinct relationships to the island’s lush landscape. Distant volcano and ocean views to Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa at the upper floors, dense forest canopy views in the middle, and access to the hillside garden and hot tub below.
