Photograph copyright 2006 Edward Caldwell
Feature: Green Living
November 1, 2006
All the beams are from local sources, and doors and cabinetry were handmade
locally by Wood Design and Alma de Santa Fe. A blacksmith from southern New Mexico, Jim Pepperl, crafted
the wrought iron hardware, and the granite work was by Stone Pro. Floors are sandstone or
earthen—a clay-based mixture made from local soils that is poured and troweled, then sealed with natural
oils and beeswax—by Dennis Overman. Such floors are extremely soft underfoot, yet surprisingly
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Recesses were built into the plaster-clad exterior. Photograph by Robert Reck. (Click image to enlarge)
“Because there are a lot of breathable materials, when you walk in the house
you really feel embraced by it,” Baker-Laporte says. “Not only are the materials locally found and
handcrafted, but you’re supporting a building culture in the area that also embraces human
beings.”
Paula Baker-Laporte, 505.989.1813, www.bakerlaporte.com
Architect Stan Field’s Silicon Valley house for Atari cofounder Sam Tramiel is
constructed from recycled materials. Photography by Field Architecture. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Stan Field
In Northern California’s Silicon Valley, Palo
Alto architect
Stan Field has made another aspect of green
building—recycled materials—the hallmark of a Silicon Valley home
designed for Sam Tramiel, one of the founders of Atari, and his family.
Having recently arrived in
California from Israel, Field became
intrigued with the beauty of Northern California redwood. Soon the
materials began to drive the architecture. “It wasn’t only the
recycling, it was more the idea of getting
in touch with the materials
and letting them speak,” he says.
Field discovered old redwood wine vats in Sonoma County and used them for the
exteriors of the Tramiel house in combination with zinc, known for its anticorrosive and thermal
qualities. “I wanted to weave the two languages together to create almost a handmade building,” Field
explains, “where the nailing pattern of the wood spoke to the zinc and the joints of the zinc spoke to the
wood and there was this interplay.” The resulting 5,500-square-foot structure is less a single-family
home than a collection of three interconnected buildings resembling a small village, each with
unusual domed and vaulted roofs.
Inside, the light maple wood suggests a more refined interior shell in
juxtaposition to the hand-hewn feeling of the exteriors. An elegant suspended staircase rises up from the
entrance hall, lit with natural light from the glass-enclosed entry below. The front door was
salvaged from the home that previously occupied the site.
Field believes the use of recycled materials and other green-building
techniques is becoming more commonplace as people become aware that architecture is much more than just
buildings.
“It has a responsibility and is part of the environment,” Field says. “The
more architecture can be in sync with its environment and its ecology, the more it’s going to enhance
one’s quality of life and sense of value.
Field Architecture, 650.462.9554, www.fieldarchitecture.com
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