Luxury homes: a chef's minimalist, barn-style hideaway clad in corten steel | The Peak Singapore

After spending a decade in New York and San Francisco, American chef and food educator Hollie Greene Rottman and her husband, pharma executive Jim Rottman, wanted a getaway home with a garden where they could connect with nature, grow their own food and experiment with healthy cooking.

Mork Ulnes Architects Triple Barn

They found the perfect location on a steep hill in Sonoma County, California, that overlooks the valley and is surrounded by miles and miles of greenery. Tasked with designing the home: the award-winning architecture practice Mork-Ulnes Architects, helmed by architect Casper Mork-Ulnes.

Compared to the sprawling 2.4ha land it sits on, the two-storey home, at 1,751 sq ft, is incredibly modest in size but it enjoys an obstructed panoramic view of the valley and there’s more than enough space for a five-bed vegetable garden.
Casper took his cues from the form and historic social functions of the barn – a common feature in the county – and transformed it into a multipurpose open interior concept that functions as a resident as well as an event space.
Dubbed the Triple Barn, the home paints a distinctive figure in the green landscape with its three-gabled roof clad in rust-hued corten steel.
“We chose corten steel for its natural resistance to fire as well as its resonance to the agricultural buildings of Sonoma Valley,” shares Casper.
What’s more, the soil of the Sonoma hillside is rich in iron, which gives it a similar rust-red colour, linking the house to its land.
The area is prone to wildfire in the dryer seasons, so access to a fire truck is a must. “The initial challenge of the project, which determined the form of the building, was how to embrace the very steep slope and views of the site while creating access for fire trucks,” says Casper.
The design team resolved this by making Triple Barn’s volume hug the steep slope and carve a cavernous void finished in rough concrete – another nod to the location’s agricultural heritage – in its lower floor, that serves as a carport and a fire truck turnaround.
The elevation of the home hugs the steep slope while the rust-red of the corten steel wall and roof are nods to the iron-rich land the home sits on.
The smaller, lower level introduces the foyer and the stairs to the kitchen and living room, a laundry and storage room, a carport-cum-fire truck turnaround and a triangular office.
The upper level’s interior can be read as one continuous space where the zoning corresponds to the triple roof form: one roof houses the public areas (kitchen and dining) as well as the outdoor kitchen and lounge, another contains the guest rooms and living room, and the other, the master suite.
The design team dubbed the three zones the workshop, the forum, and the retreat, respectively. All the interior walls are white to maximise the brightness of the space and free from ornaments, allowing the vista framed by its large windows take centre stage.
The floor and cabinetry are clad in pale Douglas Fir timber to add warmth while the bathrooms are done in natural stone for a subtle, resort-like ambience.
The furniture plan cleverly provides small nooks from which one can fully appreciate the vista. An armchair sits in front of the fully glazed wall and the plush sofa invites one to relax in the living area.
The kitchen’s seating area and its adjacent deck, the chairs by the garden as well as the fire pit, all offer serene spaces to retreat to.
The colour palette of the furnishings features sun-bleached solid colours that let the vista shine and create an impression that everything has been in the space for a long time.
The plush Tufty Too sofa by Patricia Urquiola for B&B Italia and the Shaker fireplace by Antonio Citterio and Toan Nguyen for Wittus create an inviting place to read in and appreciate the view.
The living area features a Losanges rug by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Nanimarquina, an Instable coffee table by Michele Barberio for Durame, and U Turn leather armchairs by Niels Bendtsen for Bensen.
The kitchen is the heart of the home, mediating the workshop and the forum parts of the house.
The two areas can easily merge, thanks to the design of the doors, creating a space that can host up to 100 people (before the pandemic) for classes or parties.
Fitted with a Carrara marble countertop, a Hansgrohe Talis faucet and a Wolf cooking hob with red knobs, the kitchen has a hidden pantry that stores dry goods, appliances and an extensive tableware collection. “A few elements were important to us, like space to prep food together and space to move freely but smartly in,” says Hollie.
Mediating the indoors and the outdoors, the generous overhang shelters the outdoor living space.
Everything must also be within reach, hence the open-faced drawers that keep the space uncluttered.With a pared-down design focusing on the owners’ habits and maximising the breathtaking location, the Triple Barn is an exemplary lesson in articulating luxury by letting nature take centre stage.