Aspen — New York — Como — Dubai
Internal area
Completed
Status
2024
Completed
2.1
Plot
Location
Aspen, Colorado, USA
Type
Mountain retreat — new build
Scope
Architecture, interiors, landscape
Palette
Low-iron triple glazing · Blackened steel · Dolomite · Cedar
Overview
A year-round retreat for a Denver family of five. The brief asked for one great room with the forest on three sides, bunk space for a dozen grandchildren-to-be, and a house that could be left closed through January without worry.
The brief
Four bedrooms, bunk room, great room, spa level, boot room, two-car garage tucked under the arrival court. Target: close the house from an app.
Palette
Great room — dolomite floor, cedar lining
Case notes
How it
was built.
Five notes from the job — the constraints that shaped the plan, and what the structure, interiors and landscape did about them.
A pine clearing at 2,400 m with 4 m design snow depth. Siting followed a wildfire-defensible-zone survey; no tree over 300 mm diameter was felled. Access track doubled as the crane path.
Steel portal frame on concrete piers, with a 600 mm insulated roof that carries snow as extra insulation. Low-iron triple-glazed units to 3.6 m; heated glass at the entry to shed ice dams.
Radiant dolomite floors throughout the living level; cedar lines bedrooms and the bunk room. Blackened-steel stair and kitchen frame the glass. All window coverings recessed and automated.
Cleared zone replanted with native grasses; arrival court in compacted granite fines with snow-melt loops underfoot.
Ground-source heat pump with six 150 m boreholes, full heat recovery, and a standing-seam roof ready for the next PV phase. House monitored remotely with frost alarms.
Timeline
Team
Architecture + interiors
SELA Studio
Architect of record
Colorado-licensed partner
Structural engineer
Mountain-region practice
Energy + PH consultant
Appointment via tender
Project data
