Jackson Hole Valley is home to some of America’s most spectacular houses, which in turn have their fill of a landscape that mixes majesty with privilege in equal measure. Thistle Creek House is the debut project from Assembly Archive, an architectural firm set up by the Rhode Island-based designer Evan Farley. Farley and his team bring a human-centric scale and crafted approach to this new house set amongst Wyoming’s epic vistas.
Set within a four-acre meadow, Thistle Creek House draws on the region’s longstanding agricultural traditions, such as the distinctive Teton Valley barns and cabins that were once scattered around the valley floor. Superficially, the new 3,800 sq ft house has a traditional silhouette – two intersecting gables, rotated off from a right angle so as to capture the best views.
The property’s dark silhouette is thanks to the vertical yakisugi cladding, the traditional Japanese process of charring cedar wood to make it fire, pest and weather resistant. Developed by Japan-based Nakamoto Forestry, the cladding is paired with dark metal roofing and window frames. The cladding variation is Nakamoto’s suyaki finish, which retains a layer of soot for added texture.
The smaller of the two volumes contains a double garage and utility area on the ground floor and a self-contained studio guest suite above it. The main volume contains three more bedrooms, including the principal suite. Both volumes have galleried landings that look down on the entrance hall, a space carved out from the intersection of the two volumes.
The ground floor changes level with the terrain, with the entrance hallway providing access to the house’s two staircases. There’s also a private study area, set well apart from the kitchen and the living room. This grand space steps down from the rest of the house and is also separated from the kitchen by a chimney breast.
Large picture windows overlooking the meadows and mountains beyond. The palette here is warmer, including traditional lye-washed fir paired with white oak and plaster, with stone and brick flooring on the ground floor.
The overall effect of this focus on materiality and simple is form is to create a house that appears rooted in its location, with a modesty, warmth and durability that respects its surroundings.
Before he established Assembly Archive, Farley worked for Barkow Leibinger in Berlin, as well as working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Howeler + Yoon. He is also a Design Critic in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Assembly Archive, EvanFarley.com, @EvanFarley