Lake Minnetonka Retreat Home has been designed by Snow Kreilich Architects, located on a wooded site on Lake Minnetonka, in Deephaven, Minnesota. The home is a weekend getaway for a family of four based in Minneapolis, about a 25-minute drive away. The design uses pure geometric forms to shape experience inside and out of the house. A clear cedar clad bar traverses from pool house/guest house and across a children’s wing to the entry court, while a black-stained cedar clad volume completes the form, extending from a concealed garage to living spaces and turning up to form a Master Suite. As you approach, the intersection of these volumes frames the lake view. Once inside it enables a soaring three-story space featuring a custom steel stair and culminating in a dramatic skylight opening for an infinitely tall space.  Geothermal heating and cooling minimizes energy costs for the home and take advantage of the continuous temperature of the earth.

The two volumes of the house overlook a central courtyard through wide expanses of SunGuard glass from Guardian.

The approach to the house is a largely opaque facade, interrupted only by small windows from Fleetwood Windows & Doors, in order to emphasize the portal under the natural-toned cedar volume and the view to the lake beyond.

Minimizing the house’s footprint, the architects designed a 7,200-square-foot primarily wood-frame building made of two L-shaped volumes. By propping one volume perpendicularly across the other, the architects created a broad gateway to the lake.

A custom steel stair marks the main entry and the connection point between the house’s two volumes. The double-height space culminates in a custom skylight from Empirehouse.

The kitchen is outfitted with Caesarstone quartz countertops, and the island features a Blanco America sink with a faucet from KWC.

In the living area, the northern wall is defined by black-stained oak doors from Fritz Cabinetry, which conceal everything from a refrigerator to the stairs that go up to the master suite on the second floor.

The master suite features black-stained quarter-sawn oak floors, as well as recessed downlights from Lucifer Lighting.

The skylit master bath features custom sinks with hardware from Hansgrohe. A tub from MTI Baths is visible on the left.

The volume containing the living spaces and master suite is clad in a black-stained cedar rainscreen, which is installed over a moisture barrier from Benjamin Obdyke.

The bridge frames a view of the pool terrace and out to the lake beyond.

Photos: Paul Crosby