Allison Ewing — Architect
“I see design as a complex Rubik’s Cube — you have to solve for all conditions to arrive at that perfect solution. And yet, great spaces embody something more — they transcend function to connect people with nature in a fundamental way.”
Ewing’s international approach to architecture is on full display at a home her firm designed recently in Virginia Beach’s Linkhorn Bay, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed area. Situated on a small peninsula facing the woods and a river, Ewing said the Japanese concept of “shakkei,” or borrowed scenery, informs the design of the house.
Ewing said the clients on this project were dissatisfied with the home they had built 20 years prior, indicating the quality of the spaces was not appealing and did not represent who they are. They wanted a home in which they could utilize all the spaces, and that also met their functional requirements while elevating daily living.
Ewing’s design highlights include a linear fountain that strikes a line along the entry path and appears to slide beneath the house before reappearing at the pool beyond the foyer. The fountain and pool create a dramatic foreground to the water view, Ewing says, while a linear trellis that follows the entry path through the foyer and hovers above the pool helps further connect the homeowners to the views.
The home’s roof overhangs and cantilevered roofs also accentuate striking views of the horizon. To create the appearance of a thin roof, Ewing angled and stepped the roof’s edges and clad it with a composite metal panel whose sheen reflects the sky.
Creating this feature was a challenge, Ewing says, as she and her team worked to keep the appearance of the roof profiles thin, despite the 24-inch beams at the big cantilever, which help to protect the home against strong storm winds. The home is air-tight, Ewing says, with insulation two to three times that of a conventional roof system, and employs a “Passivhaus” approach, a German building standard. “Despite these challenges, the landscape and house siting do a good job of creating a beautiful place that feels integrated and full of nature,” Ewing said. “The overarching goal is to make connections between people and nature while enhancing the environment.”
— Excerpt from New View: A Curated Visual Gallery: Twenty Magnificent Homes by Northeast Architects
Photography by Prakash Patel
Photography by Prakash Patel
Photography by Prakash Patel