A serene wooded glass pavilion house in the forest of Washington

By One Kindesign November 22, 2021

5 comments

contemporary-home-exterior-dusk

Finne Architects in collaboration with Schultz Miller has transformed an existing 1950’s Northwest contemporary house into a glass pavilion on a secluded, wooded site just outside of Seattle, Washington. With extensive new windows and glazed roof monitors, the renovated house appears to be a glass pavilion in the forest.

The floor plan has been re-organized to create a spacious, light-filled primary bedroom and primary bath, with each space surrounded by glass and views to the forest. The main living, dining and spaces have been slightly enlarged, with high windows has been added to bring soft natural light to the entire space.

The glass wall between the master bedroom and master bathroom has been transformed with the use of a hand-drawn pattern in etched glass, with the pattern being more dense at the bottom (for a sense of privacy) and increasingly transparent at the top.

Sustainable design practices includes radiant under floor heating throughout, high clerestory windows bring natural light deep into the house and motorized operators allow for venting during summer months. Many green materials (such as resin panels, quart counters, linoleum, low VOC paint, and sustainable wood products) were used in the project.

What We Love: This luminous glass pavilion house is in perfect harmony with its woodland site. The home’s attractive exterior facade has a quiet yet powerful presence in the landscape. Expansive walls of glass along with light monitors in the roof helps to floor the interior living spaces with natural light. The heavy use of wood on the interior helps to infuse cozy warmth into this spectacular home.

Tell Us: What details in the design of this dwelling most inspired you and why in the Comments below!

Note: Check out a couple of other incredible home tours that we have featured here on One Kindesign in the state of Washington: This beautiful Washington home remodel embodies warmth and character and Glass house surrounded by a tranquil forest setting on Whidbey Island.

The interior features clear fir and hemlock, custom cherry cabinetry, and a sculptural wall of steel tiles and grass laminated panels.

PHOTOGRAPHER Benjamin Benschneider

BEFORE THE REMODEL

You are reading an article curated by https://onekindesign.com/

5 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Katie

2 years ago

For me the house looked more comfortable in the before photos.

Michael D Keenoy

They did a fantastic job to restore the used up mid century house into a modern yet warm 2021 example of bringing the nature of the island into the living spaces of the house. The use of wood in this house is beautiful, warm and calming. The clerestory windows bring light into house in wonderful ways and the floor to ceiling windows blend the forest into the living spaces. I would love to spend time in this house. I think Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects of mid century modern houses would be glad to see the effort put into… Read more »

no comment

Reply to Michael D Keenoy

i was specifically referring to the glass wall that was etched: the one between the master bedroom and the bathroom. exterior glass walls are feasible because you can use window coverings, as you stated. but you don’t want glass walls to interior areas from the bathroom. my point was that the chemical etching didn’t appear to achieve the privacy which was the stated reason for etching them. i assume the reason why they did this was to allow light from the bathroom to flood into the master bedroom. i think that they would have been better off ditching the glazing… Read more »

the house has a rather “cabin” feel. to the extent that i am putting the photos together correctly, it appears that the “master” bathroom is at the end of a hallway. so a person going from the master bedroom to the master bathroom is basically going out into the (end of the) hall to enter the master bathroom (i’m not real keen on that arrangement). you generally don’t want glass walls in a bathroom. from what i can see from the photos, the etching in the glass wall doesn’t do a very good job of protecting privacy.