House on Basalt Ledge

The lot came with a shelf of basalt running diagonally beneath it, about three feet down at the north corner and surfacing entirely at the south. Three previous buyers walked after their contractors quoted for blasting. Ardley Wren quoted for reading it instead. The house sits on the rock rather than in it. A concrete raft bridges the two high points and the living floor is held three feet above the stone, so the ledge runs uninterrupted underneath the building and out into the garden. From the sunken court on the east side you can put your hand on the same rock that carries the roof. The plan is a simple L, but a deliberate one: the long arm faces northeast to take the morning and refuse the afternoon, and the short arm holds the service spine as a thick wall against the western sun. There is no air conditioning in the living areas and none was designed for. The stack of the double-height hall pulls air up and out through a clerestory running the full length of the ridge. Materials were chosen for how they age rather than how they photograph. The basalt is split-face and left untreated. The lime plaster was burnished by hand and will chalk slightly through the first two rainy seasons before it settles. The fir was salvaged from a warehouse off Alameda and carries its old bolt holes, which the architect declined to fill. It is a house that will look better in twenty years than it does now, which is an unusual thing to be able to say about anything built this decade.