Sculptures That Surround

The abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi once famously described architecture as “inhabited sculpture,” and having just witnessed several high-profile, architect-driven projects materialize across our skylines, we Twin Citians might seem sympathetic to this heady claim. Yet for every public edifice that sprouts a cantilevered arm or aluminum-mesh siding, urban expansion breeds a host of McMansions, prefab condos, and cookie-cutter culs-de-sac. Don’t get us wrong: Metro homes include a number of stunning “inhabited sculptures,” but the role of the architect still tends to be undervalued in residential development. Thus, the Residential Architects’ Vision & Excellence Awards, conducted by Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and the American Institute of Architects Minnesota.

The annual RAVE competition not only recognizes superior examples of local residential architecture, it strives to promote the merits of architect-driven home design. This year, forty-three submissions in seven categories yielded the following nine award-winners, selected by a panel of judges that included Bruce Abrahamson, FAIA, founding partner of Hammel, Green and Abrahamson; Jayne Haugen Olson, senior editor at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine; and Dennis Wedlick, AIA, New York–based residential architect and author of several books, including The Good Home.

Bluff House
Mark Larson, AIA, and Jean Rehkamp Larson, Rehkamp
Larson Architects
New Residence, More than 3,500 Square Feet

To say there is a tangible connection between this Eden Prairie home and the outcropping on which it rests is no exaggeration—the house’s geo-thermal heating pipes are drilled directly into the bluff below. Traditional timber framing and the use of salvaged lumber stand out against the steel-and-glass southern façade and the building’s decidedly modern interior fixtures. Judges appreciated the contrast, specifically praising the architects’ positioning of the wooden structural elements inside the glass, thus keeping the materials distinct. “It has a certain Spartan feel that I appreciate,” said judge Bruce Abrahamson. “Wood is wood, and the other materials are allowed to express themselves.” Builder: Earthwood Builders. Structural engineers: Mattson Macdonald Young. Timber framer: Great Northern Timberworks. Project team: Scott Durand, Keith Kamman, and Susan Nackers Ludwig; Rehkamp Larson Architects

Family Living
Todd Hansen, AIA, Albertsson Hansen Architecture
Remodel, More than 800 Square Feet

For architect Todd Hansen, the remodel of this early 1990s St. Paul home was an exercise in contained time-travel. While the home’s exterior design matches the neighborhood’s Victorian style, the interior suffered from poor access to light, a cramped kitchen, oppressively divided living and dining space, and other problems associated with early ’90s interior design. Hansen’s airy restructuring of walls, entryways, and columns suggested what judge Jayne Haugen Olson called “a very today family’s modern approach.” Without amending the exterior, this remodel drastically altered the relationship among rooms and the availability of daylight. Effectively upgrading the house without expanding it, observed Dennis Wedlick, served to “heighten the awareness of what can be accomplished with interior architecture.” Project team: Greta Trygstad. Builder: Choice Wood Company

Hilltop
Wayne Branum, AIA, Sala Architects
New Residence, Less than 2,000 Square Feet

The crimson-roofed tower of architect Wayne Branum’s modernist homestead rises above the tree line like a curious neighbor peering over a fence. Glimpsed from across the spottily wooded and crop-woven plain of its rural Wisconsin locale, it resembles nothing so much as a stovepipe—a genuine, if manufactured, extension of the hillside on which it rests. The sloped roofs of the adjacent main structure and nearby studio mimic the topography, while the vibrantly colored exteriors recall the hues of old barn wood. For Abrahamson, the structures conjured “a relocation of the Midwestern farm,” although the sleek, spacious interiors are anything but pastoral. Builder: Anderson Wallin Construction