Buffaloe House

This house evolved from explorations into a deep and honest engagement with it’s environment. Sited in a gently rolling pasture, it is bordered on one side by the plateaus of Mesa Verde and on the other by the peaks of the LaPlata mountains. The house reaches out toward these landscapes, delicately balancing the need for shelter and intimate spaces with the desire for pulling in light, views, and terrain from multiple vantage points. These considerations, along with the client's love of art, cooking and entertaining, informed the organization of the various spaces and their connections. The materials palette focuses on resilience, with an exterior of corten steel, zinc, and concrete. The corten and concrete volumes move uninterrupted from exterior to interior and are complemented by douglas fir and smooth plaster. Energy efficiency was essential to the project: the building envelope is tightly sealed and highly insulated, and includes triple-glazed wood windows. A ground-source heat pump, appropriate passive solar design and a PV array meet nearly all of the home's energy needs. Central to the architecture is raw materiality and the multiple moments of engagement with the terrain, views, and constantly changing light of this western landscape.