Honorable Mention: American Architecture Awards 2024
Meadow House | Carmel, California | 2023

Architects: Mark English Architects
Lead Architect: Mark English
Design Team: Greg Corbett, Joshua Kehl, and Karli Montick
General Contractor: Portola Valley Builders, Inc.
Client: Private
Photographers: Joe Fletcher

The Santa Lucia Preserve is a private community of 20,000 acres in the Carmel Valley, 18,000 of which are protected by a conservation land trust. The remaining 10 percent is set aside for infrastructure, a private club, outdoor recreation, and equestrian facilities. The property includes only 297 homesites, with few that are visible from the roads and trails.
The challenge was to create a compound for a multigenerational family, integrated into the landscape. The design process was monitored through five hearings with the Design Review Board, with adherence to the land development and design guidelines verified at every step.
The brief was to design a fully-accessible family compound intended to accommodate a multigenerational family with strong business and cultural ties to Korea; a “California home with a Korean heart.”

Design features include:

• A “Z”-shaped floor plan nestled into the existing stand of trees.
• South-facing window walls balanced by shades and cantilevered roof decks to exclude direct sunlight and control solar gain.
• Distinct levels between common rooms with ramps maintain wheelchair accessibility.
• Built-in shelves, plinths, and niches for sacred objects important to the client’s culture.

A small curated collection of materials is used for the interior and exterior of the home. The interior collection includes Italian Bluestone or white oak floors, quartz slab countertops, shower surrounds and baths and kitchen, white oak built-in furnishings and details, painted drywall, perforated steel stairs and stainless steel railings and kitchen finishes. The exterior finishes include the same Italian Bluestone flooring, vertical grain douglas fir slat screens, weathering steel siding and fascia, integrally colored cement plaster and split face S limestone cladding.

Several Sustainable measures implemented beyond basic code requirements.  All heating and cooling is provided through high efficiency, locally distributed electric heat pump cassettes and blower units.

The length, location and extent of all roof overhangs designed so that minimal direct sunlight penetration is allowed into the home during the hottest months of the year. Cooling loads are reduced as well through the use of vertical cedar wood sun screens.
The ground plane structure of both the house and guest house is concrete slab on grade with a stone slab finish. The resulting exposed thermal mass absorbs, stores and releases heat in the cooler months.  The extensive use of stacking glass door systems allows for highly manageable natural cross ventilation and cooling. Exterior materials are low to no maintenance materials such as stone veneer, natural cedar and weathering steel.