Camouflage House

Approaching the house from the clearing.

Project details

• Project Name: Camouflage House
• Location of Site: Green Lake, Wisconsin, USA
• Design Team: Brian Johnsen, Sebastian Schmaling
• Project Type: Private Residence
• Client: John Geiger and Kathy Murkowski
• Contractor/s: Gale Burg Construction
• Site Area: 4 acres
• Built-up Area: 270 square meter
• Date of completion: 2007

View from the bluff.

Words from the architect

The Camouflage House sits on a steep lake bluff, its narrow, linear volume nestled into the hillside. Approaching the house from the rugged access road weaving through the site's heavily wooded plateau, the building's faint, low-slung silhouette virtually disappears in the surrounding vegetation. With its simple plan, restrained use of materials, and precise detailing, the house achieves an elegant clarity and a rustic warmth that nevertheless avoids bucolic sentimentality. Informed by early conceptual studies of the most striking features of the context, the house's complex system of facade layers, contrasting the geometric discipline of the building mass, expresses its ambition to assimilate with its surroundings. Echoing the trees' arresting verticality and the rhythmic shifts between the trunks as one moves through the site, the building skin is composed of solids and voids - wall and glass panels - whose seemingly random organization overlaps with the strict 48" base grid of the building's exposed structural columns.

Close-up view of facade layers and veneer panels.

This first facade layer is clad in untreated vertical cedar and serves as the backdrop for a series of polychromatic Prodema wood veneer panels that reverberate the ever-changing hues of the surrounding deciduous trees. Over time, the cedar walls will weather to a silver-gray, while the wood veneer panels will retain their original color and pristine finish. On the lower level, an exposed concrete retaining wall, whose vertical texture precisely reverberates the building's structural grid, forms a circulation spine from which all bedrooms can be accessed.

Conceptual diagram: pixellation of context informs facade system.

From the small clearing of the entry court, the low roof of the open breezeway connecting house and garage leads to a linear, glazed entry foyer that penetrates the two-story, 2,700 SF bar building and terminates into a partially covered balcony with spectacular views of the lake. Stairs connect to the lower level, which is fully exposed on the lake side and houses all bedrooms, providing access to the zero-edge bluff terrace that stretches along the entire length of the building and to the master bedroom "grotto," an intimate outdoor space between the western edge of the house and the site's imposing rock formation. On the upper level, kitchen, dining and living functions occupy an open space that can extend into the adjacent spacious screen porch by retracting the large, foldable glass door system separating the two. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, the screen porch functions as the home's lung, taking advantage of the mild lake breezes.

The cladding of the low-slung building echoes its context.

Interior view of living hall, looking towards screen patio.

Lake view from screen patio.

Exterior view of house.

Exploded axonometric of principal building components.

Night view from clearing.

Credits

• Text: Johnsen Schmaling Architects
• Photographs: John Macaulay (exterior), Kevin Miyazaki (interior)