Description
Between architecture and nature opposite Seattle
This architect-designed house, set in a park designed by world-renowned landscape architect Kathryn Gustasfon, has been landscaped in response to the surrounding landscape and the different seasons. Built in 1973 and renovated in 1998, this house with its minimalist lines evokes the architecture of the Nordic countries and blends seamlessly into its green surroundings.
Set in 8400 sqm, the property comprises a main house of 206 sqm and includes, in addition, a guesthouse of 95 sqm with a workshop and two garages.
On one level, the house features a large living room with dining room, sitting room with custom-designed fireplace, and open-plan kitchen. The whole is extended by a terrace overlooking the garden. The sleeping area comprises three bedrooms, a large office area, two bathrooms and a shower room. An entrance hall, complete with two utility rooms (laundry and cloakroom), creates an airlock before accessing the interior spaces.
The guest house comprises a workshop area and garage on the ground floor, and a high-ceilinged studio apartment with kitchenette and shower room on the first floor.
Inside, the white walls highlight the green landscape, framed by the windows and connecting each room to the garden. The volumes, with their different ceiling heights, create a serene space, illuminated by a flow of light thanks to the zenithal openings. The oblique lines of the ceiling also contribute to the variation in heights, while magnifying the space. The conversation pit, a living room set back from the main level, was popular from the 1950s to the 1970s and creates an intimate space in the tradition of American modernist architects such as Paul Rudolph and Eero Saarinen.
This property is located on Vashon Island in Washington State opposite Seattle and accessible by boat, 10 minutes from Tacoma, 20 minutes from West Seattle and 30 minutes from Downtown Seattle and the airport by watertaxi. It’s a complete change of scenery, unexpected and unsuspected while Downtown is just around the corner.
Vashon Island has always been a haven for independent artists, writers, musicians and the hippy communities of the 70s, looking for a place away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The locals, proud of the cultural gap with Seattle, like to say ” keep Vashon weird “. Numerous galleries and artists’ studios enliven the island, while the Center for the Arts hosts exhibitions, concerts and plays.
A house with a privileged relationship with the landscape
The natural spirit of the house is harmoniously emphasised by the garden’s landscape composition, the work of international specialist Kathryn Gustafson, who has made this place her open-air laboratory. The garden is planted with several types of magnolia, agapanthus, ferns and a verdant lawn that changes with the seasons, contrasting with the island’s conifers and other trees. This combination of local and exotic plants helps to create a sense of holiday in the heart of nature.
Seventies architecture
The house, with its dark wood cladding and metal roof, is representative of the 1970s construction period in the United States, marked by the development of post-modern ecological thinking, breaking with modernist architecture, which was perceived as unsuited to the needs of the inhabitants.
In the 1960s, architect Charles Moore contributed to the development of Sea Ranch, California, a community where the wooden houses reflect ” the ecological and libertarian ideal ” Californian. This return to nature is reflected in the house at Vashon, protected from view by dense vegetation that surrounds it, and where access is not direct, as the island is not connected to the mainland by a road.
Kathryn Gustafson
Kathryn Gustafson is founder and partner of Gustafson Porter + Bowman, an architecture and landscape practice that places respect for the historical context and the geographical and natural specificity of the site at the heart of its practice. Her projects include the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (2004) in London, the Parque Central (2012-2018) in Valencia and the future greening and pedestrianisation project between the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. In the United States, she also founded the Gustafson Guthrie Nichol agency, which designed the Lurie Garden in Chicago’s Millennium Park and the Smithsonian African American Museum of History and Culture Park in Washington, among other projects. His two agencies have received numerous awards, including the prestigious RIBA London Award, and enjoy international recognition in landscape architectural practice.
Technical elements
Price: $1,750,000
Full ownership
Taxes: $8,809
ECD IN PROGRESS
