James River House, Scottsville Real Estate, Virginia Vacation Home, US Architecture Images
James River House in Scottsville, Virginia
Sep 14, 2020
James River House, Scottsville
Design: ARCHITECTUREFIRM
Location: Scottsville, Virginia, USA

Photos by James Ewing / JBSA
The James River House was designed as a place for three young boys. It is a place where they can grow and learn from their surroundings – experience mud, moths, flowing water, and the changing light of the seasons; a place that would allow for many gatherings of all the people who love them. Three volumes hover above a bluff alongside a bend in the James River in Scottsville, Virginia, arranged loosely and lightly on the land like a scattered group of stones around a campfire. As a visitor slips between the volumes, the house opens up to light and river views and the fully enveloping woods.
The clients wanted to build a home for their immediate and extended family with additional space for cousins and friends to come and enjoy the river and wooded landscape of this remote central Virginia location. Key to this setting was creating as little disturbance to the landscape as possible, to conserve the forest setting and to embrace the woods as the setting for the home. The home needed to be as open to this landscape as possible and create as much indoor/outdoor experience as possible, physical and perceptual.

The home is set on 40 acres of fairly rugged land, with only an old dirt logging road cutting ac...