Russian River Residence

Elevated Housing

Up on stilts – to avoid the 100 year flood level the house is 30 feet up in the air – creating a ship-like detachment from elevated “deck” of this renovated house along the Russian River. Like a home perched between giant wood peers the original home is enlarged by INTERSTICE architects to provide a lighter, expanded home, better connected to the lake, and the new shared social spaces – some of which can occupy the comfortable shade of the flood zone volume “under the boardwalk.”

Extruding the Section

To honor the earlier structure INTERSTICE designed the extension to extruded the clerestory roof break so that it could provide an organizing feature for the new interiors – allowing light into the core areas of the home and connecting rooms – this element is then expressed as an entry feature toward the street. New stairs on peers allow an simple direct route past outdoor games porch, gardens, boat shed, utility and water-toy storage areas, all en-route from lake to house and back again.

The Buoy Pod

Like a flotsam geodesic mystery pod clinging to the lower (sometimes submerged) peers below the house is an open program game-pod – an informal boat shed, and camp-out space provides at grade enclosure for recreation paraphernalia. The tessellated fiber-concrete panel structure is supported on a triangulated structure built off a reinforced rectangular chassis in order to resist flood intrusion, while allowing water to flow through, and yet be easily hosed down after major seasonal flood events; which are more common with every passing year.