Above Conundrum Creek, this house is nestled within an aspen grove and takes advantage of multiple dramatic views from the property. Looking upwards, the rear side of the Highland Bowl ski area dominates the skyline at an elevation of over 12,000 feet. To the north and through the trees, one can see the valley extend beyond and between Highlands and Aspen mountains. During initial walks across the site with the client, it was determined that using the architecture to capture these views would determine the design concepts. Thus, the house uses large areas of glass to simultaneously capture vertical and horizontal scenes in the landscape. A long, horizontal window across the entire upper level living space acts as a “viewfinder” and reveals the descending valley through a dense screen of aspen trunks. At the end of this room, floor-to-ceiling glass captures Highland Bowl and becomes a counterpoint to the horizontal view.

While the upper floor contains the communal spaces for living and the primary bedroom suite, the lower level provides entry and sleeping quarters for guests. These spaces at grade establish an intimate relationship between the architecture and the landscape below the tree canopy. In contrast to the distant views provided above, areas of the glass in the bedrooms extend to the floor and foreshorten views to the forest floor just outside. Through the manipulation of space and field of vision, the house becomes a device for understanding the vast expanse of scales within the surrounding alpine landscape.

Due to its remote location, the house incorporates several unique features that required considerable planning and coordination throughout the design process and during construction. Supplemental mechanical and electrical systems allow the home to operate off-grid for extended periods of time when necessary. Site planning incorporated wastewater management and large-volume water storage for drinking water as well as for wildfire mitigation. These components are seamlessly integrated into the architecture and within the site to minimize the impact of the architecture on the surrounding landscape.