Solk Architecture places white house on Hudson Valley hilltop

New York-based studio Solk Architecture has designed a rectangular, gabled house with fibre cement siding as a way to find beauty in functionality in the Hudson Valley.

Located in Ulster County, Cloud House measures 2,100 square feet (195 square metres) and sits on a four-acre wooded lot, chosen for its expansive views of farmland and two nearby nature preserves.

"The siting and design of the home was in consideration of these views and how they shift over the course of the day and throughout the year," the Solk Architecture team told Dezeen.

"One looks outwards, but the surrounding landscape in turn fills the home. It offers the reminder that we are at all times inseparable from our environment."

Selected for low maintenance and sustainability, the house is clad in grey cement board atop an exposed concrete foundation.

Together with its standing seam metal roof, the neutral materials provide an alternative to the trendy blackened wood siding of Hudson Valley homes.

The house was designed for minimal impact on the site, maintaining all excavated soil and preserving surrounding trees and root structure.

The linear main level of the house is located at the site's highest point, challenging visitors with an ascent on approach and offering a vantage point across the horizon.

"Instead of being completely embedded in the landscape, the volume of the house floats above the ground plane as the grade drops off towards the view," the studio said. "The house feels as though it sits amongst the clouds as the fog rolls up from the valley below."

The interior is laid out for ease of living with rooms flowing naturally from one to another and embedded storage options.

Entering from the ramp on the northwest corner, residents move from a private suite into the kitchen, dining room and living room that opens through gable-profile windows onto a large deck.

"Nothing is added without a functional reason, and only sized as needed and nothing more," the studio said.

"It is unafraid of visual breathing room. Bareness can be inviting instead of cold; it allows for natural light to be the architecture."

The narrow floorplate, double-height end windows and reflective surfaces allow light to reach far into the house, washing down and bouncing off white walls.

Down a flight of stairs tucked behind the kitchen cabinetry is a compact basement level, where a secondary bedroom, office space and bike storage descend partially into the slope.

"The interior material palette is subdued, inviting the exterior views to fill the home," the studio said.

"Bare metal and warm white oak suggest a simplicity of living, allowing the residents to turn down the busy visual and acoustical sensory experience when spending time outside New York City."

Hot water radiant floors run throughout the house and a heat recovery ventilation system brings fresh air into the house. The landscape was left in its natural state, negating the need for irrigation.

"In semi-suburban/semi-rural areas there is often the temptation to 'landscape' around a building and create a cleaner version of nature as a buffer," the studio said.

"Architecture can come right up against the wild and accept the imperfection and mutability that comes with that."

Other homes recently completed in the Hudson Valley include an angular, blackened cedar home that was a collaboration between S3 Architecture and Aston Martin, a cabin with a tower-topped sauna by BarlisWedlick and a linear, glass-front house that "flows like music" by HGX Design.

The photography is by Devon Banks.

Project credits:

Architecture & interior design: Solk Architecture
Structural consultant: MARTOS engineering pllc
General contractor: Sweeney Custom Carpentry

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