With an honest respect for the craft, proportion and poetic nature of Japanese Timber Framing, the Poetes’s approached me to design a country house which embodied these ideals. After much research, we endeavoured to create an appropriate energy efficient home which architecturally expressed the core values of Japanese philosophy and design. These principles include: light quality and shadow with indirect and reflected light being most important, horizontal line and horizontality in form, layering of natural materials and textures, use of appropriate proportion of timber framing structural members, designed focal points, and transparent layering of spaces using screens and covered walkways transitioning to nature.

Located near Port Angeles, WA, with views north across the ‘Strait of Juan de Fuca’ to Canada, the house uses both north and south light through it’s narrow center while wrapping linearly around an entrance courtyard garden to the south.

Builder: Chris James / Freshwater Bay Builders

Timber Frame: Cascade Joinery, W.A.

Lighting Design: Studio Lumen, Seattle

Engineering: Sturdy Engineering, W.A.

Interior Design: Nancy and Karl Poetes