Architecture: S^A | Schwartz and Architecture

Photography: Bruce Damonte

Landscape Design: Arterra Landscape Architects

Emerging from the clients' opposing visions—one favoring an elevated multistory home with mountain views, the other preferring a single-story grounded in the landscape—the Paradox House embraces contradiction rather than compromise. Guided by Niels Bohr’s idea that paradox can spark progress, the design responds to a geologically paradoxical site: rugged on the surface, yet requiring deep foundations to build. This allowed for a structure that is grounded at the rear but floats toward the front, with a bedroom wing above a grotto framed by cruciform columns and stone cairns formed from excavated rock. An upper-level infinity pool cools the grotto below, intensifying the sense of inversion. Inside, contrasts continue—grey and black tones are disrupted by vivid chartreuse and blue, and spaces shift from daylit curiosities, like a geode-filled entry skylight, to evening-focused elements like a combined fireplace and hidden media bar. The house also operates fully off-grid, with solar power, well water, greywater recycling, and passive climate strategies.