Inspired by the Land | Healdsburg, California, USA | Arterra Landscape Architects

 

Logged in the 1800s, this 40-acre hillside tract of land in Healdsburg, California was disfigured by flat-pad grading to create work and stockpile areas and crisscrossed with service trails. The site was filled with non-native, invasive and fire-prone plants, and harsh, unnatural landforms.

The Landscape Architect collaborated with the Architect and Design Team to restore the land and site a new home to maximize views toward the rehabilitated forest and grassland, and the town below. A rainwater collection system fills an underground 10,000-gallon cistern with water collected from the roof to irrigate the landscape plantings, as well as for fire suppression for the adjacent grasslands.

The materials used throughout the home, guest house and landscape were informed by the restored land, leading to a simple and limited palette. Glass and steel walls lift entirely out of the way to turn the home into an open-air pavilion.

Inspired by the Land

Landscape Architect | Arterra Landscape Architects
Image Credits | Joe Fletcher Photography

Inspired by the Land was shortlisted in the 2018 WLA Awards

About Damian Holmes 3252 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/