Volpe House
Completion Winter 2011, Timberline Construction

This home sits on a bluff overlooking rolling sagebrush meadows in Oregon’s High Desert with views of the Cascade Mountains dominating the western horizon. The owners, Matthew and Margherita Fox requested an extremely durable and energy efficient home for their family.  The request for a net zero house necessitated extensive use of photovoltaic panels, ground source heat-pumps, careful consideration of day lighting and shading strategies, and a super-insulated structure. 

Italian architect and childhood friend Maria Chiara Trevisan created the original vision for the structure as a gift to the Foxes.  The three masses, originally conceived as parallelepipedo (rectangular cubes) resting at various angles in the earth, evolved into three shelled structures clad in stone, a loose reference to the Three Sisters mountains which dominate the home’s view.

Photos by Nicole Werner and Bob Woodward