Simple form

March 29, 2019

DiG Architects, an American modern residential and commercial architecture design firm, completed its latest project for a busy working couple and their three children in Atlanta, Georgia.

Located near Emory University and the CDC, the house is a quiet, restrained, escape from the excessively noisy digital world that overly stimulates their daily lives and is a reaction to the surrounding banal spec homes each a louder spectacle than the next. Simple and clean in its form the house started as a twenty-two foot wide extruded box. That width was chosen based on the distance a reasonable size wood truss can span. This ensured that no interior support walls were required allowing for an uncomplicated open floor plan. Arranged in an efficient pattern to eliminate waste, the primary exterior cladding of the box is a low maintenance grey cement panel. The panels, attached as an open joint ventilated rainscreen system, help manage moisture intrusion and reduce energy consumption.

Cut to the desired length based on the space requirements of the family, the box is subsequently split into public and private volumes allowing for a clear delineation between functions. The private portion is rotated ninety degrees around the sky-lit stair hall to maximize views to the serene woods behind the house. A complimentary warm ipe wood, alluding to the softer interiors of the house, clads the cuts. The exposed roofs are covered with vegetation to reduce stormwater runoff, mitigate energy consumption and improve air quality. Comprised of the bedrooms upstairs and the guesthouse on the main level, the private functions bridge across a covered breezeway creating an outdoor room with a view corridor to the woods and access to the main and guest house entrances.

The public functions move through a series of low and tall spaces culminating in a double height sky-lit space. The skylights provide shifting light patterns throughout the day and are operable to create passive cooling during the warm months. The houses six skylights and the low-e insulated glazed windows use sunlight instead of artificial light for illumination to decrease the house’s energy consumption. Lined with cabinets on one side that serve as storage, housing for the entertainment center, fireplace, dining room buffet, refrigerator, and freezer allows the public functions to stay open, clean, and uncluttered. The quiet interiors create a relaxing calm environment that is about the
space itself and the views to the outside.

A series of site walls, carefully nestled into the steep lot which slopes forty-two feet down from the front to the back of the property, cascade down the hill from the street to create a terraced entrance garden that becomes the exposed foundation of the house. Long grasses, appropriate for the climate, reinforce the simple geometric forms of the house with their naturally soothing sway and unify the engineered slopes that mitigate the grade differences of the site. The manicured lower lawn adjacent to the grove of trees give way to the ever changing natural beauty of the woods beyond.


Photography by Alexander Herring

www.digarchitects.com

SHARE THIS

 Subscribe

Keep up to date with the latest trends!

Receive a dose of inspiration directly into your mailbox!

 Contribute

G&G _ Magazine is always looking for the creative talents of stylists, designers, photographers and writers from around the globe.

WRITE US

 Find us on

 Home Projects

By G&G _ Magazine May 21, 2025
With a view of Boa Viagem Beach in Recife, Brazil, the interior design project, signed by Architects Office, invites the landscape to enter the apartment by capturing the vastness of the horizon.
By G&G _ Magazine May 19, 2025
In the heart of Józefów, opposite a picturesque forest, Florentyna Paszko-Karczewska from Tulumi Interiors pro j ected a home for a family of four that desired a bright, serene space—an oasis away from the bustle of everyday life.
By G&G _ Magazine March 4, 2025
André Luque Arquitetura renovated a 570 m² apartment for a family in São Paulo, focusing on the integration of social spaces.
By G&G _ Magazine February 19, 2025
Designer Alexey Aladashvili designed an apartment is located in a cottage village in the Moscow region from with coniferous forest and river view.
By G&G _ Magazine February 17, 2025
The international architecture and interior design firm Archventil oversaw the interior design of a bright apartment in Milan, combining a classical base with contemporary furnishings, vintage design pieces and the industrial finitures.
MORE

 Popular Posts

By G&G _ Magazine May 2, 2025
Nestled at the foot of Shuiguan Mountain, just an hour's drive from Beijing, Commune by the Great Wall stands as a testament to contemporary architectural innovation harmoniously blended with China's rich heritage.
By G&G _ Magaizne April 15, 2025
The curtains have just closed on Milan Design Week 2025, the most anticipated and influential design event of the year, once again casting the spotlight on the Lombard capital from April 7 to 13. But as you walked through the city’s vibrant streets, it wasn’t just design enthusiasts and professionals you met...
By Zhanna Lysohorova March 26, 2025
The 55th edition of CIFF has confirmed its evolution from a simple showcase of products to a strategic hub for the furniture sector with an ever-increasing focus on innovative and original design.