American studio Field Architecture has created a spacious house for a wooded site near San Francisco, where preserving conditions for local flora and fauna was a guiding concern for the architects.

Called Forty-One Oaks, the residence is named after the precise number of oak trees found on the property ? a hilly site in Portola Valley, just south of San Francisco. Creating a home that was attuned to its wooded setting was a guiding concern for Field Architecture, based in nearby Palo Alto.
Photograph by John Merkl
"The clients, a couple retired from corporate careers and now immersed in their passion for photography, wanted the home to feel like a continuation of the landscape," the architects said.
Photograph by John Merkl
For the Portola Valley property, the team conceived a series of connected rectilinear volumes that are topped with flat roofs with deep overhangs. Exterior walls are wrapped in concrete, cedar and vast expanses of glass. Photograph by John Merkl
"The trees formed the foundation of this material palette," the architects said. "The concrete elements take on the strong verticality of tree trunks, and the steel, horizontal, cantilevered canopies shelter with the same grace as sloping branches ? an architectural echo of the form of the oak tree."
Photograph by John Merkl
Inside, the home features a fluid layout and contemporary decor. Warm wooden ceilings lend a soft touch to rooms awash in grey and white tones.
Large panes of g...