Positioned along a busy highway in central Tennessee, the site strategy utilizes a purposeful building footprint, designed to be welcoming while providing a private, intimate setting for family gathering and outdoor living. While the owner desired a contemporary design solution, it was also important to create a style that remains contextual to its neighborhood and surroundings. From the street, simple and identifiable gable massing in dark colors are used to create a bold identity while quietly being juxtaposed on a lighter colored plinth. A mixed material palette of stone and stucco anchor vertical composite siding and standing seam metal roofing. The building stair is used to add a singular 2-story massing element to the building façade while a horizontal roof canopy at the “friends’ entry” provides a visual clue to a more intimate scale of the secluded outdoor living areas on the rear of the home.

The space plan is arranged along a primary circulation corridor which is accentuated by a large window aperture at its terminus. Natural daylighting is key to the success of the layout, providing a strong connection to the private exterior covered patio space, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor space. South facing clerestory windows are located in the living area and primary bedroom to take advantage of not only seasonal natural daylighting opportunities but to also visually connect to the canopies of the existing wooded property line.