In extreme environments, the ingenuity of design often shines through the creation of an appropriate habitable space. With a slight margin of error in these settings, climatic and contextual compatibility become vital in user comfort and structural longevity. House at 9000 feet highlights the significance of place and climate-driven design in extreme conditions. Located in the intermountain region of the United States, the house is perched on a mountaintop—as the name implies—at 9000 feet above sea level. Designed by Canadian architecture firm MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, the five-bedroom ski house consists of 4400 square feet of inhabited space plus a garage.

Cladded in red cedar inside-out, the house pays homage to the region’s local architecture while also bearing a space-age form. “In terms of material culture, we have been inspired by the local barns in the valley below. The choice of cedar becomes a way of fitting in the neighbourhood, the cladding being a gesture to portray the warmth of wood. In contrast, the sculptural nature of the house is in response to the wind, the regulations and the client requirements of wanting to make an architectural statement,” Brian Mackay-Lyons, the Founding Principal at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects elucidated in a conversation with STIR.

With a stringent requisite to tackle the extreme climate, the house follows the steadfast rules of sustainability in building orientation—with the longest side facing south, aligned along an east-west axis and minimising the west sun. An extruded ellipse raised on stilts, the house opens up visually to the south, capturing spectacular views of the valley and mountains. While the south-facing slope gave splendid views of the snowclad mountains, the amount of heat gain in a high desert—especially with the winter sun reflecting off the snow—is tremendous. "We wanted to maximise the viewing capabilities with the 88-foot-long window but wanted to keep the sun from penetrating. So we created a deep window with the soffit and the seat to form a light trap—forming a brise soleil,” Mackay-Lyons explains. Made out of white ash, the window seat passively controls solar heat gain and makes the house significantly more comfortable, without compromising on the views.

Describing the project’s eureka moment when everything came together, Mackay-Lyons recollects, “While the strategy from the very beginning was to make the building context and climate-driven, there was a moment when I sketched the elliptical section with the client when the form changed from something looking like a barn to something that looks more like a spaceship.”

The elevated nature of the house—accessed through a bridge—was designed in response to the 30 per cent slope across the site and annual snowfall that goes up to 40 feet. “The snow makes it very difficult to access buildings with a traditional driveway. We have used a bridge—meant for both cars and pedestrians—to directly access the second level so that the entry isn’t buried in the snow. Made out of perforated steel, the bridge is designed so that the snow does not become a major impediment. The climatic conditions thus create an upside-down house, with the living spaces on top and a majority of bedrooms on the lower level,” MacKay-Lyons added. The challenges of constructing considering the height restrictions made the elliptical shape an apparent choice for the architects since it tangentially ran along the height limit. Being located in a region notorious for one of the highest wind loads in the United States, the elliptical section of the house also helps make the house aero-dynamic which in turn makes the house immune to heavy wind loads.

One enters the house—either through the covered porch or the garage—and moves through the mud room to a perforated stair that descends into the lower level, as a skylight floods the space with natural light. A low-height foyer opens into an area that houses the living space, dining, hearth, and kitchen. A covered deck at the western end of the house provides sunset views towards the valley below, and the east end is occupied by the primary bedroom—with a media room adjoining it. The ground level offers a ski-in/ski-out amenity—which allows the inhabitants to put their gear on and directly ski into the valley, while also giving them the ability to come back right in the dwelling. The concrete ‘core’ comprises four guest bedrooms across two levels, nestled below the main level. With just a single steep road that reached the site, transporting concrete was especially difficult and expensive. A limited amount of concrete was thus used, with the environment defining the structure's materiality unusually—as the limitations of logistics played a significant role in the design. The house is designed as a steel-framed bridge-like structure—except for the concrete core—and is supported by steel columns.  

House at 9000 feet portrays the belonging of a building to its site, rather than an imposition. Its raised nature, form and fenestrations distinctly respond to finding a bargain between the environment and the users. "Don’t try to stop nature, nature wins. If you try to grab the ground, in places such as the hills or the coast, nature erodes the building quicker. Let nature—the wind and the snow—go under the building,” MacKay-Lyons expounds, describing how buildings become enduring when acquiescent of the context. While the hearth is usually the totemic element in a house, the detail that captures the essence of this house is the white ash bench which embodies the values and strategic empathy the house portrays towards the users and the environment, while finding a balance between the two without trying to impose one on the other.

Project Details

Name: House at 9000 feet
Location: Intermountain Region, United States of America
Area: 510 sqm.
Architect: Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Design Lead: Brian Mackay-Lyons
Project Manager: Matthew Bishop
Project Team: Izak Bridgman, Alastair Bird, Isaac Fresia, Ben Fuglevand,
Sawa Rostkowska, Diana Carl, Jesse Martyn, Lucas McDowell, Jennifer Esposito
Structural Design: Blackwell Structural Engineers
Mechanical Design: Harris Dudley Co
Electrical Design: BNA Consulting
Civil work: Talisman Civil Consultants
Geotech: Intermountain Geoenvironmental Services Inc
Contractor: Edge Builders
Artworks: Matthew Bishop
Year of completion: April, 2022