SKY AND EARTH MEET LIVE AND WORK
FLIGHT HOUSE
For the digital homesteaders
YOLO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA / 2015
Modern, light-filled, and connected to the earth and the sky, this project is warm, welcoming, and practical—just like its owners. They were ahead of the curve in their desire to work from home as they raised their child, drawing inspiration from childhood memories of winter sunlight and playing in far-flung meadows in South Africa. The result is an authentic custom homestead to put down deep family roots and cultivate life organically, one day at a time.
The innovative TridiPanel building system allowed me to place structural elements on the roof, forming signature wings like the land’s often-seen mesmerically shifting flocks of birds (the home sits on the Pacific Flyway). These wings represent that moment of lift-off when anything is possible.
PROJECT SIZE
2,795 sq. ft. on 4.56 acres
MATERIALS
4.56 acres
Large meadow or field
TridiPanel building system
Views of crop rows
Pacific Flyway
The wings visually extend the neighboring crop rows.
In the great room, extra-large folding glass doors open the corner entirely to the outside, providing abundant light and expanding the space into a private meadow.
Flight House is attainable. The owners were willing to cut costs in some areas—like using a flat-pack kitchen—to focus on space, light, and design.
Four boxes—bedroom, living-dining-kitchen, work, and guest pods—form two structures arranged on an eight-foot grid. Separate live and work structures connect through a breezeway.
For the walls and roof, I used TridiPanel, a building system that uses insulation and structural mesh enveloped in concrete. Perfect for rural architecture, it is earthquake, water-resistant, fire-retardant, and resistant to termites, rodents, and dry rot.
Tridi can be color-coated, allowing the structures to appear as uniform, solid objects.
Photos #1, 3-13 by Julia Ogrydziak
Photo #2 by Todd Quam, Digital Sky
FEATURED CASE STUDY
FRAMING THE VALLEY:
MARIA OGRYDZIAK, HOUSES
Like Flight House? You can read more about it as one of eight case study houses featured in my book Framing the Valley, where trailblazing people—with both modest and luxurious budgets—worked with me to craft remarkable lives.
