House on the Bench

House on the Bench is the third home Sturgess Architecture has designed for the same clients, who asked the practice to help them find a site on the Naramata bench that could hold lake views, a small vineyard and the programme for a vacation house. After viewing several relatively conventional properties, the clients were shown a 2.5-acre site that had been undervalued because of its complex condition. The land reads as two parts: an open, shallow upper slope that has since become a vineyard, and a lower portion that falls away into a deep forested gorge where Naramata Creek runs below.

The house projects out over the gorge, reaching towards panoramic views of Lake Okanagan to the west. Rather than sitting on the easier shallow slope, which would have consumed land suited to growing wine grapes, the building anchors itself on the edge of the slope and cantilevers outward. This frees the bench for a north-to-south planting of vines that maximises sun exposure, while the long, narrow plan bridges the gap between vineyard and ravine and parallels the rows of grapes to draw natural light deep into the home.

From the street, a concrete wall registers the privacy of the realm beyond, while a guest suite overhangs it as a gesture of welcome. Visitors enter through the wall to a framed view of the main entrance, the vineyard beyond and the lake opposite. A garage and guest suite are separated from the main house by a loggia and a covered outdoor living room that works as part of the house in summer weather. Inside, a sequence of tall spaces embraces the lake, forest and vineyard, growing narrower and more private towards the north and culminating in a main bedroom that opens onto a cantilevered terrace above the gorge and the rushing river below.

To blur the line between structure and landscape, the house extends the bench through its form and materiality: steel cladding and black stained wood, with board-formed concrete recalling the sedimentary layering of the exposed soil where the steel frame projects into space. The steel frame, a material not typically used for residential application, makes the long span and the dramatic cantilever possible.

Architect: Sturgess Architecture. Photography: Ema Peter.