Sugar Bowl House

The Sugar Bowl House in Norden is set at the base of Sugar Bowl ski resort, just outside of Truckee, CA. Greg Faulkner designed this house to take advantage of a coincident view to Disney Mountain and the south sun . Sugar Bowl  boasts maximum snow fall and great powder days in the high sierra just minutes from downtown Truckee, California.

 

 

The owners of Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer house  commissioned us  to design this Sugar Bowl Ski house. Presenting the initial design drawings at Wright's textile block house in the Hollywood Hills was humbling.

 

The living area of the house floats at ten to twelve feet above grade on a rough board framed concrete wall. The master cabin is built on a timber framework. At midwinter the average snow depth accumulates to about this floor level, which gives one a sense of floating on the snow from the inside.

 

An attic bunk room inhabits this roof zone with low quirky ceilings and hidden bunks. The entire house has been furnished with salvaged furniture and rugs, giving it a rough, familiar, fun character.

 

Exterior redwood package from a single salvaged redwood log found in a Sebastopol campground. Interior casework is manufactured from recycled wine barrels, counter tops are mahogany from Union Pacific car flooring.

 

Other sustainable attributes include fly ash concrete, recycled content steel, reclaimed pine flooring, no VOC paint, soy foam insulation, and a high efficiency hydronic heat system without air conditioning.

 

The significant problem to be solved in this heavy snow climate is the creation of a form that protects the occupants from shedding snow. The directional form of gables and additive shed roofs allow the snow to fall to the sides of the house. 

 

 

 

 

The owners of Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer house  commissioned us  to design this Sugar Bowl Ski house. Presenting the initial design drawings at Wright's textile block house in the Hollywood Hills was humbling.

 

The living area of the house floats at ten to twelve feet above grade on a rough board framed concrete wall. The master cabin is built on a timber framework. At midwinter the average snow depth accumulates to about this floor level, which gives one a sense of floating on the snow from the inside.

 

An attic bunk room inhabits this roof zone with low quirky ceilings and hidden bunks. The entire house has been furnished with salvaged furniture and rugs, giving it a rough, familiar, fun character.

 

Exterior redwood package from a single salvaged redwood log found in a Sebastopol campground. Interior casework is manufactured from recycled wine barrels, counter tops are mahogany from Union Pacific car flooring.

 

Other sustainable attributes include fly ash concrete, recycled content steel, reclaimed pine flooring, no VOC paint, soy foam insulation, and a high efficiency hydronic heat system without air conditioning.

 

The significant problem to be solved in this heavy snow climate is the creation of a form that protects the occupants from shedding snow. The directional form of gables and additive shed roofs allow the snow to fall to the sides of the house. 

 

 

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