Blackbird House is located on a small cul de sac lot three blocks from the main ski lift in downtown Aspen. The site offers spectacular 360-degree views to the signature Aspen Mountain, the changing seasonal colors of Red and Smuggler’s Mountains, and the Ute Mountain. In a neighborhood of modest mid-century modern houses and apartments, the architecture’s floor plan and section are a creative response to the town’s urban form-based zoning codes. While generous the project respects a building scale complimentary to the community’s historic fabric of wood-sided one bedroom miner’s cabins and delicately detailed 19th Century Victorian homes.
The plan geometry is shaped by the arch of the cul de sac’s center point and the radial north and south edges of the home’s 0.21 acre site. The height is sensitively responsive to the town of Aspen’s desire to maintain a comfortable small town human scale.
The relatively modest cul de sac facing entry is richly detailed with vertical charred (Shou-Sugi-Ban Cypress boards and custom formed standing seam anthra-zinc metal cladding). Generous window apertures are placed to capture the surrounding views while the architecture visually recedes into the shadows of the aspen and conifer trees that surround it.
Upon entry a dramatically sky lit stair of hot-rolled oiled steel plates and perforated sheet takes the eye toward a grand window view of gondola chairs ascending the cable of the Aspen Mountain ski lift beyond. Three first level bedroom suites, a generously scaled day lit lower level fourth bedroom suite and a flex room for media and exercise, create a dynamic plinth for the home’s main upper level pavilion. Energized by the ‘origami-like’ folded planes of the main floors lofty ceiling, dynamic plan shifts and vast vistas, the ‘great room’ (living, dining, and kitchen) and the main master bedroom suite are at the core of this mountain chalet.
Interior finishes include polished reflective white diamond troweled plaster walls and ceilings, doors and cabinets of white rift sawn oak, floors of engineered walnut, large format porcelain tile or carpet, bathing chambers clad in thin stone, and fireplaces with dramatically scaled mantles of quilted grey stone. The architecture is designed to be a ‘rustically’ refined backdrop for a sophisticated, indoor/outdoor contemporary lifestyle where all of one’s senses are engaged and enhanced throughout the seasons of Aspen.
Aspen, Colorado
Confidential
06/2015
507 sq. m
will bruder architects llc
Will Bruder, Craig Chapple, Kent McClure, Jacqueline Twardowski
Koru limited
rudow + berry, inc, otterbein engineering, will bruder architects llc, bluegreen
Bill Timmerman
Curriculum
Will Bruder explores inventive and contextually exciting architectural solutions in response to site opportunities and user needs. Will is a craftsman in his concern for detail and building processes, and a sculptor in his unique blending of space, materials, and light. Will’s ability to raise the ordinary to the extraordinary is renowned.
Self-trained as an architect, Will has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Supplementing his studio art education were studies in structural engineering, philosophy, art history, and urban planning, followed by a full architectural apprenticeship under Gunnar Birkerts and Paolo Soleri. Since becoming registered and opening his studio in 1974 over 600 commissions have been undertaken and the work has garnered more than 100 awards and appeared in over 1200 publications worldwide.
