“I was quite taken by this project because, besides the simplicity on the approach, it creates quite a complex design in its setting. It is very beautifully done both inside and out and in the detailing. At first, I thought it was only designed as a floor plan, but I can see that it elevates it in both its volume and its relationship to its context, which gives an extra richness to the project.”
— Celia Esther Arredondo Zambrano
Location Lexington, Virginia
Architect SCHAUM/SHIEH Architects
Design Team Troy Schaum, AIA, Rosalyne Shieh, Tucker Douglas, AIA, Giorgio Angelini, Andrea Brennan, AIA, Ane Gonzalez, Claire Wagner
Contractor Blue Ridge Green
Structural Engineer Truesdell Engineering
Photographer Naho Kubota
Shenandoah House, a home and writer’s retreat, unfolds over a slope of the Allegheny Mountains in Virginia. The three-bedroom, energy-efficient home organizes spaces along a single corridor aligned with the contour of the hilltop site. Rooms extend out from this central spine, creating garden pockets between each space on both sides of the home, and the windows framing the ends create a telescope effect, focusing on the dense forest at one end and on the surrounding meadow on the other. Inside, the sculptural roof informs the organization of each room. No fixtures interrupt the ceilings, and lighting emerges through slots at the ceiling edge. Quasi-furniture objects of wood, stone, and concrete provide texture across the home, while locally sourced soapstone punctuates the fireplace volume and bamboo clads the sprawling floor.