Agosta House
San Juan Island, Washington
Patkau Architects Inc. (Vancouver, BC)
_______________________________

This project is a private residence of 2,775 square feet for a couple who are relocating from Manhattan to San Juan Island, a small rural island off the Pacific coast in Washington State. In addition to conventional domestic requirements, the program of the house includes an office for professional work and a garden that is enclosed by a 12-foot fence to protect it from the many deer that run wild throughout the island.

The 43-acre property is covered largely by second-growth Douglas Fir forest. Ten acres of this land have been dedicated to a perpetual conservation easement. The house sits on a grassed meadow that is enclosed on three sides by the dark fir forest. To the northwest it overlooks rolling fields below, with a distant view across Haro Strait to the Gulf Islands of British Columbia.

The house is stretched across the ridge of the meadow, like a “spatial dam” with a forecourt “reservoir” to the southeast and a panorama of fields and waterways below to the northwest. The walls and roof slope in response to the gentle but steady slope of the site. The spatial organization of the house extrudes the simple building section and manipulates it in two ways: by eroding the section to create exterior in-between spaces that subdivide the house programmatically into zones; and by inserting non-structural bulkheads that organize the interior into smaller spatial areas.

The construction of the house is relatively straightforward. It has a simple concrete slab-on-grade foundation, and its structure combines heavy timber fir framing that is left exposed and conventional stud framing that is clad in painted gypsum board. The house has radiant heating from hot water tubes cast into the concrete slab. The exterior is clad largely in light-gauge galvanized sheet steel that protects the structure from weather and also addresses the possibility of wildfires in this rural area with limited firefighting protection.

Jury Comments:

A line is drawn across a clearing, dividing it into two natural courts. On closer view, the line is composed of a number of closely spaced parallel lines, within which lie the dwelling spaces of the house. Connections back and forth to the landscape occur at breaks in these lines. An enriched experience of the landscape is achieved through simple means.

Stephen Teeple, FRAIC
(Ontario)
____________________

The house occupies its rugged, yet gently undulating site in a convincing way. It has found its setting and architectural character: a simple, solid body with many interior and exterior pockets for living and celebrating the landscape.

Markku Komonen,
(Finland)
____________________