California, USA
Anne Fougeron with her team at Fougeron Architecture and Landscape Architects Ground Studio have remodeled and expanded the Suspension House, a residence perched between two beautiful California hills that span a creek and boast a waterfall in the backyard.
The Suspension House has recently been awarded a 2024 Future House Award by Global Design News and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
“A man-made object in nature may exist in harmony or disparity,” according to the architects.
The goal was to reconnect this structure into the environment while best utilizing the exceptional site for the clients.
In the state of California, it is no longer legal for homes to be suspended over a creek. Therefore, there were strict guidelines on how to use the existing structure as the basis for design.
Most importantly, the new home had to follow the exact outline of the existing house and decks.
The goal of this unique site was to enhance the relationship of the structure to the nearby bodies of water and the rock face.
Rather than bearing down and disturbing the creek below, the new structural system has been anchored to the bedrock within the flanks of the hill, suspending the home completely over the water.
By opening site lines and using transparent materials, floor-to-ceiling windows, see-through floors and open-concept outdoor spaces such as floating staircases, the natural water features are visible from the front and back of the house.
To allow for the expansion of the third floor and to remove previous structural columns in the creek bed, a steel structure was inserted underneath the existing floors.
Rather than hide this support system, it is exposed on all the floors.
The first two floors’ structure and orientation follow the existing house, but the new third floor rotates 90 degrees to better relate to the site.
This shift breaks up the mass of the structure, giving some levity and height while differentiating itself from the lower floors.
Atop a steel frame, the roof—like the home itself—hovers, creating a dynamic space with lots of natural light.
The Suspension House at once balances the role of architecture—especially modernism—in nature with the role of the client at home.
Project: Suspension House
Architects: Fougeron Architecture
Lead Architect: Anne Fougeron
Project Manager: Todd Aranaz
Design Team: Niiraj Kapadia, Fionnuala Bhreathnach, Mariana Alberola, Jennifer Li, and Ana Finkelstein
Landscape Architects: Ground Studio
Structural Engineers: Endres Studio
General Contractor: Barry Builders
Client: Private
Photographers: Joe Fletcher
