Buford Residence.

The Buford Residence is a three-level custom single-family dwelling comprised of 13,000 square feet of conditioned space, located in Buford, Georgia.  The program includes extensive entertainment spaces, a separate owner’s wing, a children’s wing and a large guest / pool house.  All the interior spaces address a sprawling outdoor entertainment space with a massive pool and a half basketball court.

The site is located in a suburban residential neighborhood with no urban infrastructure.  This condition led to the development of an internally focused compound that derives its own sense of urbanity through the articulation of a series of distinct building volumes with extensive outdoor spaces that are woven between them.  The initial outdoor space up arrival is a formal motor court that provides guest parking with rich landscaping, both of which are organized by architectural components that extend from the structure of the main house.  The primary living spaces form a public zone that is situated between the motor court and the second major outdoor space, which is a dramatic courtyard comprised of a series of terraces that wrap around a large pool and form the epicenter of the home.  The pool house appears to sit on an island set within the free-form pool and is accessed by a bridge.  The rear end of the courtyard descends a series of landscape bleachers overlooking a half basketball court and large playing field.

The home is zoned to create privacy for the family by separating the owner’s suite from the children’s wing.  The kids’ bedrooms are contained within a sub-system of pavilions each of which has access to the courtyard.  The indoor and outdoor living spaces form a connective social zone where the family gathers privately and with guests.

The site is dominated by a steeply sloped and heavily wooded perimeter that wraps a relatively level plateau, which was the location of an existing house, patio and pool.  Given a desire to preserve the trees and natural character of the property, the new home has been situated on the previously developed areas of the site and maintains portions of the existing patio, pool and pool house.  The existing patio is expanded to become a series of terraced outdoor spaces that pass through the entertainment and living zone within the house and culminate in a garden that establishes a connection to an existing tennis court.  The living spaces have soaring ceilings to articulate their connection to the exterior environment. This movement through the site is a critical organizational feature and reinforces the powerful relationship between interior and exterior spaces.