SUNSHINE CANYON HOUSE

transparency & flow in a colorado home

The Sunshine Canyon House occupies a hillside in Sunshine Canyon outside Boulder, Colorado, with spectacular views and a lush, isolated setting. The project substantially expands and gut-renovates the constrained original structure, which lacked interior movement and a strong connection to its surroundings, to create a new residence with generous living spaces and a clear sense of place.

At its core, the house is composed of horizontal volumes and planes of white stucco and wood, giving the architecture a calm, ordered presence in the landscape. Extended Brazilian redwood decks, balconies, towers, and glass volumes occupy the perimeter, easing the transition to nature while establishing a rhythm of form and material that lends the house a comfortable human scale.

Several portions of the house have been opened up, expanded, and reconfigured to refocus circulation and views. A new glass-and-redwood structure clarifies the previously indistinct entry, while planar elements such as flat roofs and clerestories are reintroduced to create a more transparent, permeable façade.

Throughout, wood screens and siding add texture and emphasize the horizontality against the mountain backdrop. Glass and continuous interior finishes blur the boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces—for example, in the Master Bathroom, where one may bathe immersed in a front grove of trees, and in the Living Room, where expansive interior spaces frame unobstructed views to the landscape and the redwood architecture.

Location: Boulder, CO

Size: 3,500 sf

Status: Complete, 2017

Credits: Photos © David Lauer Photography

Project Team: Adam Stack, General Contractor ARCH11, Architect of Record

Credits: Photos © David Lauer Photography