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Hugging the hillside, this retirement home in Butler, TN is an assemblage of tin-roofed houses sited to follow the contours of the land. They gather around a protected courtyard nestled between the house and wooded mountain slope to the north.
The south side opens up to distant views with generously glazed walls and a large porch projecting out into the trees. In summer the house is nearly hidden in a canopy of green.
With to-the-floor glass, corner windows,
and multiple openings to the outside, it has the feeling of a treehouse, with views that animate the interior spaces and change dramatically with the seasons.
Summer
Fall
Winter
Upon approaching the Eich home, an entry path leads you in from the guest parking area,
or from the carport with its slatted walls,
and decorative structure.
A series of overlapping roofs allow the Eichs to move from their car to the front door under cover, protected from the elements.
The entry roof pulls away from the house to create a trellis along this landscaped walk, allowing light to pass through to the garden below.
Once past the carport, a courtyard garden and patio is revealed, enclosed by the mountain on one side and what feels like a grouping of houses on the other.
The entrance area is a breezeway between the master bedroom to the right and public areas to the left. Finished in exterior materials, it has an indoor/outdoor feel, with a direct view through the screen porch and out to the trees beyond.
From the breezeway, you enter the warm, finished space of the interior.
Living, dining and cooking are combined in one large, casual space,
which opens onto a courtyard patio on one side and a screened porch on the other. With its narrow width and ability to expand out on either side, the house itself is like a big porch.
To maintain an easy flow from inside to outside, all is on one level for most of the house. Partial walls, built-ins, and furniture are used to separate spaces, rather than solid walls.
Only the guest wing and den step up the hillside, still open to the main space, but partially screened by a wall of display shelves.
By maintaining a narrow house depth, we minimized front-to-back grade changes. This also allows light to stream from one exterior wall to the other and for cool mountain breezes to pass through.
With double doors opposite, the kitchen spills directly out onto the screen porch,
dramatically expanding the living space,
offering a panoramic view of the surrounding woods,
and intensifying the feeling of living in the treetops.
The house, like this stairwell window, aims to bring together light, color, pattern, forest and building in an artful way.
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