Hoke House

Client: John and Karen Hoke

Location: Portland, Oregon

Size: 4,800 sq ft.

Awards:

2012 ASLA Oregon: ‘Merit Award’ with 2Ink

The final design simultaneously minimizes the building footprint and heightens the floating, forested tree-house experience.

The Hoke Residence, on the edge of Portland’s renowned Forest Park, walks the line between vibrant outdoor environment and dramatic interior space. The sloping site presented technical challenges resulting in a relatively small buildable area to still provide generous and flowing spaces. The final design simultaneously minimizes the building footprint and heightens the floating, forested tree-house experience.

The residence melds the technological and the primitive in its materials and systems — combining cutting edge details with surfaces, textures and spaces that remain natural and intuitive. The Hoke Residence features an extensive system of decks and patios connected to the interior spaces by floor to ceiling openings.

These outdoor living zones are located strategically in opposite cardinal directions from the core living spaces, providing generous outdoor spaces that are useable at different times of day and through different seasons — occupants may seek shelter from or open themselves up to the sun and rain, light and shade. Both urban and wild, the residence is in harmony with, and a reflection of its location at the border of the city of Portland and Forest Park.