Sonoma Pool House
Anchored by an inventive reuse of local materials on a constrained lot in a beautiful Sonoma County landscape, this project started as a country retreat and evolved into a full-time residence. The desired program added a pool, pool house, outdoor living area, gardens, bocce court and guest arrival with overflow parking. The property was long and narrow, hugging a busy roadway but situated to look beyond the constraints to spectacular vistas of rolling vineyards and classic coastal California ridgelines.
The design raises the pool high on the property and cuts the pool house into the hillside – allowing the horizon of the pool edge to edit the view to the road below. Nestled into the hill with its back to the trees, the new, earthen ground plane acts as a primitive plinth that supports a rustic enclosure. The prime program of the pool house is wrapped in grape stakes gathered from the property and resawn to operate as a shroud to the private innards of the building. This cladding provides solid walls where necessary and opens to the view where desirable. The modest interior footprint seamlessly expands to the terrace beyond with the help of a rough-sawn trellis that floats overhead, providing needed shade during the hottest times of day.
General Contractor: JMH Jon Hallengren
Structural Engineer: Bill Lynch Berkeley Structural Design
Civil Engineer: Kelder Engineering
Photographer: Adam Rouse
Cut into the hillside, the pool house wears a shroud of reclaimed grape stakes, editing the view to vineyard and ridge.
An earthen plinth cradles the pool house, its grape-stake cladding shifting between shelter and open view.
