Ridgeback House, Oakland California
The owners purchased a site located on a high ridge with views of San Francisco Bay and in an area once home to large redwood forests now long gone from logging. The clients are avid salt-water people—surfing and body-surfing—and wanted their house to reflect their lifestyle and their collections of surf paraphernalia and ocean-inspired artwork. The house interior is reflective of the redwood forests and rocky topography and is linked to outdoor stone terraces reminiscent of granite rock formations found in Yosemite National Park. The roof is an independent structure supported by beams and steel columns under which walls are placed. Roofing is removed in places to reveal the roof structure and also act as a trellis designed to shade the terraces and windows below from the afternoon sun in the manner much like sunlight filtered through tree branches. The design is influenced by San Francisco Bay Area Modern or Critical Regionalism.