Project: House Ocho
Architects: Feldman Architecture
Location: Santa Lucia Range, California, USA
Area: 2,900 sqft
Photographs by: Paul Dyer, Claudio Santini, Kodiak Greenwood, and Roland Bishop
House Ocho by Feldman Architecture
Feldman Architecture, a San Francisco-based studio, has designed the House Ocho in the Santa Lucia range, near Carmel-by-the-sea, a small town in Monterey County, California.
This compact, 2,900 square foot residence creates stunning views of the mountain range but more importantly, it is famous for its use of passive solar heating and living roofs, making the house very energy efficient.
Located in a nature preserve in the Santa Lucia Mountains, the site of oak forests and steep meadows strongly impacted and inspired Feldman Architecture’s design for House Ocho. In order to reduce the impact of the home’s massing and to preserve site lines, the building settles into the ground and overhanging roofs are planted with tall native grasses. The house is also divided up into a series of pavilions to lessen its overall mass.
After passing through an entry grove, visitors can see distant views between and over the various building elements. As they are drawn into the widening view, they are led down from the tree-lined ridge to a large terrace that serves as an outdoor living room for the house. Nearly every room has wide doors that open to the land allowing the modest home to feel much more spacious.
