Napa, CA

The site is a wooded hill overlooking the Napa Valley above the Silverado Trail, which runs along the eastern edge of the valley. The thousand-squarefoot guest house comprises living/dining/kitchen, main suite, and second bedroom. Arrival is in a clearing paved with gravel. A roof folds over the clearing to cover the cars and entry. Attached to the roof is a Cor-Ten steel wall containing the services and circulation. The entry is a sliding glass door that penetrates the Cor-Ten wall and opens to a court and view of the valley. The spine is connected by clerestory windows to the living areas in the next slice, three interior spaces separated by two exterior courts. Rooms look through and past the courts to the rooms and courts beyond. The living spaces are shaded and marked with stucco fin walls, which form an arcade expanding the interior out. There is a shifting figure of the fields in Napa. In the summer, the natural landscape is bleached brown, the irrigated vineyards bright green. In the winter, the natural hills are bright green, the vineyards dormant brown. In the fall, the landscape is unified in a single rusty whole. It is this synthesis of natural and constructed that the Cor-Ten face of the house marks.