No Comments »

A Home of Sensual Textures in Sonoma Wins an Award

• Tweet

• Tweet

With expansive views over the vineyard and the valley beyond it, a monastic stone and steel residence by Aidlin Darling Design  is a 2013 NDA award winner.

This is a house built with walls of stone, built the way stone buildings have been built since ancient time.

Huge stones flank the space both inside and out, and are grounded by richly patina’d timber floorboards.

Yet the very old building technique is adroitly married to the most elegant of contemporary construction – like these sleek center-swung glass doors.

The design quietly reciprocates the complexities of the site, capturing a serene spirit of place.

“The visual, tactile and acoustic qualities of each material contribute to a mnemonic mapping of the house and its landscape,” say the architects.

The velvety carpet repeats the grid of the oiled wooden screen doors.

The muted greys of the soft grey weathered wood in the chairs prepares the eye for the much richer woods in the table and the screen.

There is a boldly stated contrast between the dry rough-hewn stone and the reflective glossiness of glass and water.

Light is further used to enhance this textural feast, raking across the rough stone walls, and echoing off the smooth stone floors.

Sonoma’s vineyard proprietors embrace a certain fustiness, where dark interiors are contrasted against the vineyard’s hot sun.

The design asthetic resists noisy or trendy decoration.

The house is staged accordingly; earthy but tasteful, and never loud.

While the home’s meticulously choreographed arrival sequence strives to achieve modesty…

… in its totality, this is a rich feast for the sense of touch.