Project Description
Custom Home / Over 3,000 Square Feet / Award
With its series of projecting and receding volumes, the 4,860-square-foot NaCl house in Bethesda, Md., looks either completely monolithic or structurally chaotic depending on your angle of approach. Seemingly rendered in modernist 8-bit, the design, by Washington, D.C.–based David Jameson Architect, was inspired by a much more natural source: a chunk of mineral rock salt. The white stucco volumes—which juror Gregory Hoss described as “masterfully configured”—are interrupted by large panels of glazing (detailed flush against the exterior walls to minimize shadows cast on the surface). Inside, the seeming chaos gives way to an airy and fluid interior, centered around a double-height living area that anchors the space. Glass balustrades, white walls, and light ash floors reflect the maximum daylight through the rooms, and create a minimal aesthetic. “I think it’s so refreshing in terms of vocabulary that it just stands out as something completely outside of what other people are doing,” juror Joel Sanders said. —Katie Gerfen