ANDERSON AYERS HOUSE

A second home for a dramatist, a writer and their son, this house provides areas in which to “stage” the activities of daily life. The main space, a barrel vaulted “bar,” cuts across the slope and steps along its length, creating the rake of a theater and establishing the central common space as a stage, with kitchen and master bedroom occupying stage right and stage left. The barrel roof is the structure around which the building’s other elements improvise. We adapted two primary siting strategies: to straddle a wind-blown, tree-covered rock outcropping, and to dig the house into the hill. At one end the house disappears into the grade, and at the other it gestures out, affording views to the landscape beyond.