Sonoma weeHouse: A Small, Ultra-Minimal, High-End Home with Two Open-Sided Boxes

Completed by Alchemy Architects, Sonoma weeHouse is designed for a client in San Fransisco. It is a small, ultra-minimal, high-end home that was designed in Minnesota, built in Oregon, and shipped to Santa Rosa. This home consists of two minimalist open-sided boxes with steel frames on the structure.

Design

The client is the project’s co-pilot with Geoffrey C. Warner, Alchemy’s principal architect. It is a house that is designed based on Alchemy’s weeHouse design, customized to meet the client’s requests of luxe finishing requirements.

Boxes

There are two minimalist open-sided boxes that are set on board-formed concrete plinths. These boxes are nestled on the gnarled oaks’ edge. The structures of these boxes feature steel frames with sliding glass walls and ipe interiors.

A set of Alchemy-designed steel stairs and railings that are fabricated in Minnesota is used to connect the offset boxes. The primary box has a whitewashed oak bed box in the middle of the volume. A bath space is on one side and a kitchen-dining-living room space is on the other.

Details

The primary box consists of two modules and one of them being the 10 ft. x 40 ft. porch. The porch module cantilevers into the dramatic landscape of the site and it is bolted onto the main module onsite as well.

The accompanying guest house is an abridged version of the larger module that has a large whitewashed oak wardrobe. This wardrobe forms the wall of the bathroom. The structures also take advantage of the amazing expansive view from the site.

Sonoma weeHouse Gallery

Some images by Brian W. Ferry Photography