Gamezone House by Faulkner Architects
Gamezone is a house in the United States by Faulkner Architects, set 6,200 feet up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Built on the family’s existing property, it extends daily life with a bridge connection, flexible gathering rooms, and outdoor areas that answer the site’s elevation and slope.
About Gamezone
“A larger place for the family to gather, connected by a bridge to our house” is the original request from friends and long-time clients. The house sits at 6,200 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and its program proves well suited to the family’s period of isolation, with room for games, exercise, yoga, dining, and cooking.
The living area is flanked by an exercise and yoga room that faces the morning sun and by a screened porch to the west for dining and cooking. The kitchen sits at the intersection of the bridge and the new house, while the upper level opens south through sliding glass panels to a level turf area formed from excavation spoils.
Game tables occupy the main room in a field-like arrangement. Entry, garage, and sleeping rooms open to grade because the topography falls away, giving each level a direct relationship to the site rather than to a formal front-and-back hierarchy.
Sustainability is addressed through orientation, infill lot use, adaptability, fire resistance, and reduced maintenance, along with upgraded glazing, insulation, and mechanical and electrical systems. The exterior is built mostly of noncombustible materials, with a cantilevered roof that meets local fire WUI codes through the thickness of its members and a fire-rated, prefinished perforated steel rainscreen over the wood-framed portions.
Built on the family’s existing house property, the bridge can be disassembled, and the house can function separately as a residence or accessory dwelling unit. It has its own access, utilities, and street address. In a time when shelter, health, and flexibility matter more than ever, the project makes those conditions tangible without overstatement.
Photography courtesy of Faulkner Architects
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