The building is a 2400 sq. ft single-story combined music performance studio space and residence in Leverett, MA.

Owners and architect worked together closely to create a structure with clean contemporary lines, Asian-influenced design elements, and a modernist look. In concrete and steel, with a shallow butterfly roof, the structure uses modern building materials inside and out, and deliberately breaks from traditional residential materials and design.

The owners were determined at the outset to preserve the natural setting — in their words, “considering the violence it is about to undergo and has already undergone”. They ruled out lawns and landscaping, decks and patios — the outside is appreciated from the interior. They wanted the house filled with light and sun, especially in winter, when they hoped it might enter “with as much force as possible”.

In a woodland setting, this balancing act required special care: on the one hand minimizing the destruction wrought by site preparation; on the
other, clearing enough vegetation to flood the interior with light. The house sits cleanly and conspicuously on a ledge on the hillside. The garage is slid into the hillside under a hypobolic paraboloidal roof that peels up from the ground.