The scenic river corridor of the Deschutes River provided both breathtaking views and difficult challenges that ultimately shaped the design and orientation of the home. Maintaining a lack of visibility from the river was a crucial factor, which kept the design constrained to a single story with a daylight basement. This allowed the plan to take a horizontal orientation, and the home was integrated into the natural landscape around it, utilizing extensive exterior terraces for outdoor living and weaving around indigenous trees and rocks. “Live Edge” took on its name in many forms – literal and metaphorical. Many live edge wood forms were utilized throughout the home: an indoor bench, an outdoor bench, a desk, the dining table, and a coffee table. In addition to these literal forms, the home itself took on a “live edge” with a site plan that allowed the borders of the home to take on a life of their own, so that the living environment around it could maintain its living, native state. In addition the live edge theme, a chevron motif can be found throughout the home: cut-outs in door panels, etched in glass, metal floor grills, wine cellar cabinetry, the tile backsplash, and even in the natural grain of the staircase wood-wall installation. Live Edge is the exemplification of elegant sustainable design for the Pacific Northwest through the use of local renewable resources, environmentally preferred systems, and durable materials for longevity: Intentionality of the integration of the architecture into the landscape, both physically and aesthetically: and the implementation of universal and resilient design practices to better prepare for the future endurance of the home.
