US studio Field Architecture has designed the dining room of this house in a suburb of Silicon Valley, California so it is open to the outdoors and frames an oak tree.
Field Architecture, which is based in Palo Alto, completed Dawnridge House in Los Altos Hills on a site with two key features: a creek that flows intermittently and large oaks.

It is split into two volumes other so that it can wrap around one of the existing and also follow the flow of the water.
"Formally, a low-sloped ranch form splits to make room for the giant live oak tree on the site, that anchors the home by sheltering an internal courtyard," said the firm.

"The split in the building's volume doesn't just make room for the tree; it also follows the bend of the stream, settling in perfect complement to the shape of the land and breaking the symmetry of the building's geometry," it added. Dawnridge House's wings ? one is one storey and the other is two ? are linked by a tall glazed structure and encase an outdoor yard underneath the shades of the tree.

"This central knuckle of the home ? located off the main living space ? offers a melding of natural landscape with built form at its most elemental: the yard is sheltered on its sides by build form and above by the tree canopy," Field Architecture added.
The firm said the design of the house was borne from careful study of the surrounding landscape, which also led them to leave much of the surroundings untouched.

"We ...