Sopris House
In 1951, a German research doctor settled in the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado to carry out his research on a new antibiotic drug. He chose to build his house in the foothills of Mount Sopris where he would, from within his house, have a constant view of the mountain’s peak. Like his laboratory work, his house design was experimental. He raised a long-span inverted butterfly roof made of heavy timber beams and situated his home below it.
In our reimagination of the house, we emphasized the umbrella-like nature of the roof by removing the walls below so the roof could float above the living space. We cut-in seven skylights, located by tracking the sun’s path, to fit between the exposed timber beams. The rooms below float within the bigger space: a play loft hovers above the kitchen, a double-sided bunkbed-wall both connects and divides the two boys’ rooms, and throughout, the red oak-clad transoms above the doors allow each room to partake a piece of the underbelly of the roof.
Location: Carbondale, CO
Status: Completed
Scale: 4,500 sq. ft.
Built by: Crawford Designs, LLC.