This is a mixed-use project with some high-end condominium housing above short-term housing intended for hotel employees in Sun Valley, Idaho.
The local vernacular in this mountain town is wood-heavy, and Sander Architects wanted to acknowledge that and work with wood and Corten steel as essential facade elements.
Allowing for generous balconies on the upper floors, to capture the spectacular views of surrounding mountains, the design places six 2-bedroom, high-end condominiums over 10 efficiency apartments. All units feature private entrances and large windows that will flood them with light.
By keeping the lines of the building clean, we allow for a playful mix of openings and indentations. With that design strategy in place, the explorations by the studio become about materiality. The three main approaches:
​
- wood
- rusted steel with a lighter wood in the indentations (or balconies)
- wood upper floors with sliding wood slats, and concrete for the lower units.
WOOD OPTION
WOOD & CONCRETE OPTION
APARTMENT OPTIONS
RUSTED STEEL OPTION
This kind of exploration is typical of the Sander Architects studio.
The renderings are in the hands of the client: which approach would you choose?