Projects: Country House

Deborah Wilk -- Interior Design, 12/1/2011 2:00:00 AM

Winner: Heliotrope Architects and NBBJ
Location: Orcasisland, Washington

Rysia Suchecka's weekend home couldn't be more basic in concept. Think transparent boxcar enclosing smaller, translucent boxcar, and you've got the gist. The Interior Design Hall of Fame member and NBBJ design partner called in former NBBJ senior associate Joe Herrin, an island neighbor who'd gone on to cofound Heliotrope Architects, to build the most uncomplicated structure possible for the sensitive site. Once a camp for the Lummi Indians, the property looks outward to a beach along the Strait of Georgia and inland to a meadow with promising exposure for the house's green roof and solar hydronic heating system. Preserving the openness of the 2,100-square-foot interior, the pantry, dressing room, and master bathroom are organized inside the smaller boxcar-placed between the public space and the master bedroom, with a hallway on each side. Suchecka designed most of the furniture. Expressing her commitment to the community, she had the pieces built by an island cabinetmaker.

Merit: Atelier Kastelic Buffey
Location: Blue Mountains, Ontario

Thanks to a steel frame, the upstairs great room of this barnlike cedar-clad structure can remain entirely unimpeded by beams or walls.

Merit: Feldman Architecture and Jeffers Design Group
Location: Carmel Valley, California

Beneath a sheet-steel roof fitted with photovoltaic panels, a Douglas fir ceiling caps the open plan of this LEED Platinum pavilion.

Merit: Fractal Construction
Location: Cold Spring, New York

A 30-foot swimming pool takes up almost half the ground level of the main house, connected by an ipe suspension bridge to the garage-studio.