A lot of thought went into the Cliff House on the edge of Lake Payette, Idaho. So much so, that architects McCall Design & Planning continued tweaking the design right up to just a few months before its completion. The end result is a spectacular residence that is truly at home amid its rocky cliffside setting, and even invites it in to become part of the furniture.
Countless architectural marvels we've featured over the years have sought to become one with nature by using local materials and attempting to blend in with their surroundings. But the Cliff House must be one of the more stunning and successful examples of this we've seen.
Perched on a cliff overlooking Payette Lake in Idaho's southwest, the Cliff House is surrounded by dense forest and abundant granite rock. Through a strategic approach to landscaping, the team sunk the home into the rocky terrain in a way that gracefully blurs the lines between the natural and the manmade. The surrounding granite surfaces adjoin almost seamlessly with structural concrete columns, tastefully contrasting with the teak timber facade.
The property features discrete rocky walkways that wind down to the lakeshore, while generous triple pane and laminated glass windows create plenty of chances to connect with nature from the inside looking out. The clients were keen to continue the granite theme indoors, with natural and introduced bedrocks poking up through the floor to form prominent parts of the interior, perhaps most notably beneath the floating staircase leading to the upper levels.
A large fireplace in the great room was crafted with granite mined from a local quarry, along with its hearthstone and mantle, while the home's vanities and counters are made from concrete. The guest rooms feature custom built-in beds and were deliberately kept small to encourage visitors to make the most of the communal spaces and the outdoors.
One particularly interesting area of the Cliff House is the kid's bathroom. Featuring a concrete tub handcrafted by a local artist, the windowless room's walls are covered in a 21 x 9 ft (6.5 x 2.7 m) mosaic made to mimic a nature scene.
If you fancy more of a look around the Cliff House, there are plenty more images in the gallery.
Source: McCall Design & Planning
'Amazing' doesn't do the building justice - proof that sometimes architects actually do a great job!
Love the little pebble beneath the stairs, and that private beach is just too much. The teak is perfect.
I'll bet the owner paid to have those beds taken out after fifteen broken or barked shins in the first WEEK. Pretty, but dayam: Ow!
You'd have to take out loans to pay the heating & A/C bills each year, though.
EH, wait until the owners add their touches. It will look far less sterile and cold with trinkets and art on the walls. The architect had those photos taken to showcase the house, not the owners' decorations. Oh, and the shoddy sheetrock is probably hand-textured and colored, far above your daily tract home wall. The beautiful teak is perfect for an ultra long life outdoors, and it's one of the most warm and beautiful woods ever put out by Ma Nature. That house is a work of art.
Were you still alive, I'd say "Move over Zaha. Among tens of thousands of mindless architects, you finally have a colleague worthy of a competition." McCall, you truly ROCK!