Project Team
Architect: Endemic Architecture
Structural Engineer: Hewitt Consulting Group
Status: Unbuilt
Heart Rock House is a proposed retreat perched on a 10 acre hillside in rural Yuba County, California among rock outcroppings, manzanita trees, and evergreens.
Though its footprint is only 270 square feet, the cabin rises into a three-story, 650-square-foot tower to take advantage of views. A series of intersecting barrel vaults carve away the base where the structure meets the ground, minimizing its footprint while allowing the landscape to flow continuously beneath and through it. This vaulted undercroft also functions as a covered porch, providing spaces for seating, dining, storage, and a semi-enclosed shower.
The geometry above the vaulted bottom is a two story cubic-pyramidal volume with areas for lounging, games, sleeping, and contemplation. Plush, soft nooks (what we call “outlook nooks”) are carved into the volume for rest and reading amidst views out across the landscape. A third level offers sleeping quarters with an elevated balcony for maximum views of the western valley.
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This project began with a fluid site plan made with ink, dye, salt, and water, which ultimately inspired an understanding of the structure. Rather than a conventional site plan, the fluid drawing
promotes a conceptual approach to understanding landscape, geology, and architecture as mutually informing each other, entangled in dynamic relationships linking ground and building, natural and built forces, blurry and sharp edges. Thus, vault legs act as a series of stones in the landscape from which the cabin is structured while the vegetated landscape moves through and around them. Color gradations in the ink drawing are translated to arcs curves and projected upwards through the interior volume,
creating a series of arcs, bends, and curves in the walls and ceilings
. Meanwhile, over time the cork facade weathers from a deep brown to a silvery gray, mirroring the changing colors of the landscape over the seasons.
