"We’re really good listeners,” says Rick Berry. It’s a handy skill for a residential designer like Berry and his colleague, architect Ryan Yoshida, to have in general, but especially if they have four clients rather than the usual one or two—and even more so when two happen to be siblings, and one of those siblings and his partner live an ocean away in Japan.
Berry and Yoshida had worked with the group before, designing a four-unit Portland home to accommodate the siblings and their parents. This time around, the family asked the architects for another multigenerational dwelling—a getaway in Bend on a lot abutting Forest Service land looking toward multiple Cascade peaks. “They wanted a simple plan, for it to feel as comfortable for one or two people as for eight or 10, and for all of the main rooms to have views,” Yoshida says of their brief.
Beyond listening to their clients’ needs, Berry and Yoshida were also attentive to the sloped site. “The initial concept was to have the home float around and lightly touch the landscape, so half the building is cantilevered over the hillside,” says Berry, adding that landscape architect Eric Bode was instrumental in planning how the residence would sit on the property. The structure itself is composed of a pair of stacked volumes, with the upper shifted slightly over the lower in a move, notes Berry, reminiscent of the way tectonic plates shift. On the upper level, the architecture team placed a pair of primary bedrooms and a media room. The lower level is home to a suite for the parents, as well as the kitchen, dining area and living room, the last anchored by a board-formed concrete fireplace. “The spaces aren’t large,” Yoshida notes. “They are intimate and functional.” To further root the dwelling into the surrounding landscape of pine trees and lava rocks, Berry and Yoshida chose cedar cladding both inside and out as well as basalt for the site walls. Of course, given the minimal materials palette and spare design, the margin of error was small, making general contractor Joe Waggoner and his team key in realizing the vision.
Home Details
Architecture:
Rick Berry and Ryan Yoshida, Scott Edwards Architecture
Interior Design:
Kathy Vuong, FQ Designs
Home Builder:
Joe Waggoner, Ikaika Gealon and Dawn Contreras, KN Visions Inc.
Landscape Architecture:
Eric Bode, Mauricio Villarreal, PLACE
As capturing the views was paramount, there are windows on all sides, including a massive 40-foot sliding door running the length of the main public spaces. Despite this abundance of glazing, the home still feels protected and private. A generous overhang shades the slider, shielding the house from the bright high desert sun in the summer and the snow in the winter, and a cedar screen artfully conceals a deck at one end of the dwelling.Designer Kathy Vuong, who frequently collaborates with the architecture team, took on the interiors, imbuing them with warmth and serenity. “The palette was natural,” says Vuong, noting the range of creams, pale grays and taupes used throughout. She intermixed the occasional darker gray or black hue to serve as grounding elements and chose soft materials like plaster, linen, cashmere and wool for their subtle texture.
Vuong kept spaces uncluttered, opting for furniture with silhouettes that read as warmly minimalist and midcentury, including a variety of rocking chairs. “The pieces are like the family—thoughtful, comfortable, efficient and light. They’re a reflection of the calmness they bring into the home,” she says. In keeping with the desire for understatement, most of the lighting is concealed in the ceiling, but to “add a little vitality,” notes Vuong, she chose a few bolder decorative fixtures. Over the dining table, for example, hangs a grouping of pendants she likens to the moon and stars. This collection of round fixtures of varying sizes sway in the breeze when the doors are open, bringing a subtle touch of movement.
Not only is the overall feel of the home simple and effortless, but the process was, too. “They were great decision makers,” says Yoshida, and Vuong agrees. “They were the easiest people to work with,” she shares. “And the way they treated each other was beautiful. It’s a testament to how their parents raised them, and the magic they created.”
In the kitchen, rift-sawn white oak cabinets fabricated by Anderson Clark Interiors are topped with Carrara marble from Nelson Tile & Stone. Fredericia stools pull up to the island, outfitted with a faucet by California Faucets. Over the Miele range is a hood cover by MW Design Workshop.
Tour The Home:
Designer Kathy Vuong centered the living room’s B&B Italia sectional, Caste coffee table and Poliform lounge chair around the board-formed concrete fireplace in this multigenerational family retreat in Bend. On the deck are a Gloster rocking chair and table.
A 40-foot-long GlasBox slider runs along the main public rooms and faces an uninterrupted expanse of wilderness. In the dining area, a collection of Vibia pendants hover over a B&B Italia table and chairs.
In the kitchen, rift-sawn white oak cabinets fabricated by Anderson Clark Interiors are topped with Carrara marble from Nelson Tile & Stone. Fredericia stools pull up to the island, outfitted with a faucet by California Faucets. Over the Miele range is a hood cover by MW Design Workshop.
Linear Sonneman sconces illuminate the primary bathroom. Below them, a Caesarstone vanity is paired with a faucet by California Faucets.
An Allied Maker reading light casts a subtle glow on the guest room’s Bonaldo bed. Beside it is a Molteni nightstand.
Berry and Yoshida describe the minimal yet cozy cedar-clad home as a pair of boxes with a shifted plane. Thanks to the large overhangs, the move creates plenty of shade and shelter from the summer sun and winter snow.
Residential designer Rick Berry and architect Ryan Yoshida situated the home on a slope to maximize views, allowing the structure to rest lightly on the land. Basalt site walls recall the lava rocks found in the surrounding environment.