Catawba River

Morganton, North Carolina

Brief
On a wooded site beside the Catawba River in North Carolina, the ambition is to create a family home that reveals itself gradually through the landscape. The programme includes a main dwelling and supporting structures, but the composition is deliberately broken into smaller forms to avoid visual dominance.

Our response
The buildings are arranged as a sequence of informal places, creating a clear progression from the site entrance to the front door. Existing vegetation and new landscaping screen and anchor the architecture, allowing only partial views from the boundary.

A consistent proportional language gives the separate structures a shared identity. Timber cladding, restrained forms and careful siting respond to the wooded terrain and establish a strong connection between the house, river and landscape.

Outcome
The proposal combines the accommodation of a substantial home with the scale and informality of a small group of rural buildings. Its presence is discovered in stages, creating privacy, anticipation and a close relationship with the natural setting.