The house is located in the eastern foothills of Merced County, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This area of California, located in the Heart of the San Joaquin Valley, suffers from hot and arid summers as well as freezing and foggy winters. During the summer months the foothills are dry and prone to wild fires. However, during the spring the landscape is transformed into lush meadows of flowers and spots of endangered vernal pools.

Initial ideas for this house were born from the client’s imaginations, a castle retreat in rural Merced County California. The landscape offers good views of the valley’s expanse and the distant Sierra Nevada Mountains. Coupled with the idea for a romanticized castle aesthetic were considerations for a sustainable design.  Keeping the house cool during the summer without the use of air conditioning was a significant concern.

Since castles are not in high demand this century, the aesthetic and functional aspects of the design were open for interpretation. The main focus was to transform a historically defensive structure into a comfortable family habitation. Today, castles stand mostly in ruins or as shells of their former selves. They are testaments to their loss of functional value.  Since, the clients wanted a Castle aesthetic with contemporary amenities, why not fill a ruined shell with a functional contemporary floor plan?

Expanding upon this idea led to the incorporation of sustainable principles, including: orienting the “contemporary filling” to receive good southern light; using concrete walls with stone veneer as a thermal mass to both cool the building throughout the day and warm the building in the evening; and incorporating a ventilation well to let hot air rise and be replaced by cool air from below. Another prime consideration was access and exposure to nature. The entire lower level can be opened to the outdoors using folding glass doors. This also creates a dynamic lower level which has no front or back. It is open on all sides for 360 degree interactions.