Creating a retreat for a family with small children, the project re-envisions a site with an existing home and barn and capitalizes on a view to a pond through mature oaks, with the challenge of transitioning from a central lawn into the surrounding natural landscape. Three new structures—a garage, a main house with two structures connected by an overhead roof plane, and a pool house—are organized around a pastoral view to the existing pond, and make use of adjacent vineyard, grassland, and forest. Circulation from the auto court is oriented through the existing oaks to the main house pavilion. The planting design reinforces a desire to use the lawn as the primary walking surface under the oaks, but replaces high water turf with a native selection requiring less mowing and water. Mulch zones have been created around the oaks to reduce irrigation, preserving them for generations to come. Beyond the lawn, a meadow edge recedes into grassland toward the pond. The notion of grassland is also carried up to the roof of the main house, with glimpses of the grasses from the auto court as well as out of the clerestory windows of the living room.
Kingold Century Centre
This new mixed-use development features a complex program that includes a hotel, rental space for other companies, eateries, service apartments, and retail facilities. SWA’s design challenge was to create a common space that can be enjoyed by the disparate users on-site at any given time. A common plaza includes multiple restaurants on a terraced platform that...
Amber Bay
The Amber Bay residential development is located on a beautiful rocky promontory that is among the last available parcels along the Dalian shoreline, southeast of the city center. The project features high-end low density modern style residential development including single family villas, townhouses, and low-rise condominiums; shops and seafood restaurants on...
SunCity Takarazuka
Twenty percent of Japan’s population is 65 years or older and the demands for high quality residential communities for seniors is growing. Helping to meet that demand, SunCity Takarazuka is a new continuum of care retirement community in Takarazuka, a suburb of Osaka, Japan. The project, owned and operated by Half Century More Co., Ltd., a leader in Japan’s fa...
Fuzhou Vanke City
The Yongtai project, located inside the Red Cliff Scenic Area, borders the Dazhang River and consists of a 45-hectare watershed area surrounded by 12 small hills. It features a boutique hotel, a shopping street, clubhouses, residential high-rises, townhouses, and detached homes. The overall project plan calls for housing clusters that follow the natural site t...