Just north of Boulder in Colorado sits a plot of land beside a lake, surrounded by prairie, with the Front Range mountains to the west and the Flatirons to the south. It was the first homestead in the area, built long before the neighbourhood grew around it. Now, it’s home to a young, outdoorsy family of four, who live in a house built for them by San Antonio-based architecture firm Lake Flato.
Its owners envisioned an energy-efficient home that would give them a deeper connection to the natural world without intruding on it. ‘Having such a thoughtful starting point was invaluable,’ says Vicki Yuan, an associate partner at Lake Flato, who led on the project. ‘This became our central theme: a house on the threshold between city and nature. One of their young daughters said their parents chose us because we knew how to best work with the land – she gets us!’
‘From our first walk on the property, we knew it was a special place,’ recalls Vicki. ‘The vast prairie stretching all the way to the foothills created a rare sense of expansiveness, and we considered the Japanese garden-design principle of borrowed landscape or shakkei [designing in a way that seamlessly incorporates the wider environment].’
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The result is a home that’s long and low, hugging the landscape, even burrowed into the hillside in places, while running parallel to the lake. Within this footprint there are distinct ‘pavilions’ for the main living areas, bedrooms, guest wing and swimming pool, with outdoor spaces woven between.
‘Our clients loved the massive limestone façades that define many of our Texas homes,’ says Vicki, ‘so we designed a long stone-and-concrete wall as the central spine of the house.’ The heaviness of those materials is balanced by the lightness and warmth of the timber-framed roof and oak interior. Vicki and her team allowed the structural materials to stand in their raw form, celebrating the craftsmanship of the construction. ‘I think this authenticity gives the house a timeless appeal,’ she says.
Challenges included the narrow site, preserving existing trees and the strength of the Chinook winds that sweep down from the foothills and required a more robust design than originally anticipated. The architects worked with an innovative timber and steel fabricator from Canada to come up with a structure that appears simple and effortless, while concealing highly intricate engineering.
Lake Flato had previously built interior designer Sara Story’s Texas ranch, and brought her onboard to work with them on this project, where she created a layered, comfortable scheme to complement the architecture. ‘Sara’s interiors bring a refined yet casual elegance, but also a wonderful touch of exuberance,’ says Vicki.
Outside, they collaborated with Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture, whose elegant native-planting palette drew from the surrounding prairie to further blur the boundaries of the site, creating a seamless transition and increasing privacy.
Since moving in, the family has enjoyed having a front-row seat to the ever-changing show outside their windows. ‘There’s always something new happening, like the red-winged blackbirds that arrive en masse every year,’ says Vicki, who is satisfied that she and her team created a home that captures the duality of city and nature.
Through materials ranging from rustic to refined and spaces that are, in turn, contained and expansive, a fine balance has been struck. A useful reminder that in a complex ecosystem, people must play their part. lakeflato.com
