Ski Straight into This Rustic-Chic Aspen Home

You’re never too young or old to hit the slopes. Ask anyone in the multigenerational family calling this three-level ski-in, ski-out residence home in Aspen, Colorado. The rustic 1990’s stone-and-glass dwelling presented a sensitive fit with its mountain surroundings but it was ripe for modernization. Rowland+Broughton’s architectural interventions include expansive, view-enhancing windows and sliding doors and the careful editing out of mullions on existing glazing. Inside the more than 9,000 square feet, most work occurred on the main and upper floors in the interest of opening up spaces.

Down came a dividing wall between the kitchen and living area. Walls were excised upstairs, too, transforming the main bedroom suite into a single gabled volume comprising sleeping and sitting spaces, plus an office. Existing oak millwork was gently bleached to emphasize the natural grain, and pedigreed contemporary furnishings were specified throughout. When inclement weather rolls in, the family can head down to the house’s lowest level, which serves as a cozy-chic indoor-activity area for rock climbing or arts and crafts.

4 Creative Homes Designed With Panache and Personality

Itch Società d’Architettura

At an early-20th-century building in the heart of Milan, two tucked-away attic apartments and two duplexes with original wood-slat ceilings (crisscrossed with steel beams) play host to numerous clever interventions. Among them: a daylight-ushering glass rooftop extension that spills onto a balcony, and refined color blocking that animates understated interiors.

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Ubalt Architectes

A 1970s computer data center converted into a live-work unit on the outskirts of the trendy Marais district puts a fearless spin on the tropes of grayscale office space. See, for example, the vertical blinds, the fluorescent jolt of tinted Plexiglas cladding structural steel, and a staggered terrazzo jardiniere—accessed by a surrealist pool ladder—that brings the terrace greenery inside.

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Office S&M

The emerging London practice remodeled the lower level of a Victorian town house in Islington with joyous tropical colors, tinted mirrors that warp views, and playhouse-esque custom built-ins with peaks and arches that reference surrounding buildings. All materials have had a prior existence, from the countertops made of melted-down plastics to the pendant lights crafted from recycled crushed brick.

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Rowland+Broughton

A crisp composition of soap-finished larch, bleached oak, charred pine, and black steel forms this contemporary three-story family home adjacent to a meadow and situated among evergreens, spruce trees, and Gambel oaks. A sculptural spiral stair with LED-lit treads and a hand-carved Pele de Tigre marble fireplace designed with the Haas Brothers are the standout moves inside.

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