LOCATION
The Dame Doerr house is sited at the edge of the Eugene Country Club; the location offered stunning views of the adjacent undulating landscape, but the house did not take full advantage of the potential for borrowing views of the golf course.
ORIENTATION
As is the case with all of our work, our attitudes toward daylight, integration with the landscape, and unity of all the rooms in the plan were critical to the success of this project. Our redesign gives natural light to every room in the house. Since the family spends most of their time in the kitchen, morning room, bedrooms, living and dining rooms, those spaces are privileged with large, south-facing view windows that open onto the golf course.
ORGANIZATION
All of the rooms are organized around the living space, which acts as a central core, connecting the entry vestibule and dining room to the elegantly landscaped garden. We sought to emphasize the living room by raising the ceiling. However, structural members ran through the living room at the existing ceiling height, which was too low to accommodate our vision for the space. This unique design challenge led us to create dramatic coffers above the existing structure, with skylights placed inside them.
