The 4015 House and its neighboring studio were designed by architects Observation Studio for a creative director and his family – a shared home and workspace built to provide a base for business and leisure. Considered without becoming overly precious, the design prioritized plenty of light with the addition of floor to ceiling windows installed across the charred black timber facade.
The interior was stripped back and reworked around a simple palette of wood, stone and steel, giving the different rooms a calm, cohesive feel. The most dramatic intervention is a new staircase, linking the main living spaces upstairs with bedrooms below. Rather than being treated as a purely functional element, the stairs become a central, sculptural part of the house. The generous glazing draws daylight into the interior while creating a visual connection with the landscape outside, giving the raised living space the sense of being among the trees that grow alongside it. After completion on the house, the project was later extended with a small, detached studio for the client’s creative practice. Although separate from the house, it shares the same restrained material palette and carefully judged proportions, making the two buildings feel like part of the same family. The studio is conceived almost like a periscope, with a broad north-facing window looking out towards the trees and sky. Together, the house and studio form a private, retreat-like setting for family life and creative work, with a focus on framing the connection to the outdoors.
Photography © Jeremy Bitterman