A Lakeside Retreat for Modern Living
While taking a car ride to calm her young son, this homeowner found the perfect lakefront lot for a new home. She’d grown up on a lake in northern Minnesota and wanted the same experience for her kids. The couple, a teacher and a dentist, are self-described modernists. Therefore, they called on architect Tim Alt to fuse casual lakeside living with modernist sensibility. Alt designed a home with extensive indoor/outdoor connections created through space planning, natural materials and wide swaths of glass.
Photos by Paul Crosby
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A professional couple with a daughter and a son
Location: Apple Valley, Minnesota
Size: 4,000 square feet (371.6 square meters)
Designer: Tim Alt of Altus Architecture + Design
This active family loves clean-lined open spaces but comfortable living as well. And they want to live outdoors as much as possible. So when they found a narrow, wooded lot alongside a lake, they asked architect Tim Alt to create a modern home that would embrace the outdoors from all of the interior spaces. “The concept organizes the public and private spaces into two separate wood-clad forms connected by a central glass-enclosed breezeway and screen porch,” Alt says. “The breezeway becomes an open access between the entry and lakeside yard, allowing air and activity to flow through the center of the house out toward the lake.”
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A professional couple with a daughter and a son
Location: Apple Valley, Minnesota
Size: 4,000 square feet (371.6 square meters)
Designer: Tim Alt of Altus Architecture + Design
This active family loves clean-lined open spaces but comfortable living as well. And they want to live outdoors as much as possible. So when they found a narrow, wooded lot alongside a lake, they asked architect Tim Alt to create a modern home that would embrace the outdoors from all of the interior spaces. “The concept organizes the public and private spaces into two separate wood-clad forms connected by a central glass-enclosed breezeway and screen porch,” Alt says. “The breezeway becomes an open access between the entry and lakeside yard, allowing air and activity to flow through the center of the house out toward the lake.”
The garage doors are translucent, so sunlight can enter into the garage during the day, and when the lights are on inside the garage in the evening, the doors light up like lanterns. The house is clad in cedar. The cobblestone courtyard is the kids’ second favorite spot to play, after the lake, of course.
The house is set on a dry-stacked bluestone base so it appears to hover on top of a rock cropping. The dark bronze, standing-seam metal roof folds down the wall on the living side of the house like a wrapper and is punctuated with cedar-framed window openings.
The sleeping portion of the house, pictured here to the left, is connected to the living portion via the breezeway, “so the kids can run from the lakeshore through the breezeway to the courtyard and not have to run through the living spaces,” Alt says. The bluestone plinth accommodates the slope, while the roof gradually inclines. “The low end of this sleeping portion of the house is the master bath and dressing room, with 8-foot ceilings. The ceiling rises to a 17-foot pitch in the living spaces.”
The master bath includes two sinks set into a vanity of ash veneer with quartz surfaces. To bring in daylight while protecting privacy, Alt included east- and north-facing clerestory windows. The floor is ceramic tile.
The master bedroom includes floor-to-ceiling corner windows with lake views. The kids’ bedrooms are located on the lower level.
The main level’s open plan embraces living, dining and kitchen. The floors are red birch and bluestone. The dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows in the living/dining spaces overlook the lake and bring in north light. “The fenestration is aluminum storefront windows, which allowed us to leverage dollars into the glass,” Alt says.
The homeowners chose the warm yellow for the large kitchen, which gives the space a homey personality. The large island has a quartz surface, with a recessed marble piece for rolling dough. Tuck-under seating suits the active family. Industrial lighting was suspended to light the island in the tall space. The cabinetry is comprised of eco-friendly veneers from reconstituted ash trees, finished here to resemble warm mahogany. The charcoal-colored cabinets were reconstituted to resemble wenge. “These products save trees and costs, and are kid-proof,” Alt says.
The kitchen opens to the dining and living room, with a wood-burning fireplace made of bluestone slabs below and thin stacked stone above. A staircase winds behind the fireplace up to a reading nook.
The reading nook has a glass railing and balcony, so whoever is occupying the space enjoys privacy but can still be seen by the rest of the family. The metal shapes protruding from the window framing are sconces that illuminate the walls.
On the west edge of the house, the metal wall is punctuated by dynamic window placement, allowing light in while screening views of the neighbors. “The simplicity of the materials, the memorable shape, the long glass windows and breezeway dividing the house in two really distinguish this home,” Alt says. Meanwhile, inside, “it’s not stuffy. It feels intensely natural. And it works just the way the family wanted it to, with connectivity to the site from all sides.”
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes