RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

Only two entries were submitted in this category, but they both displayed interesting uses of concrete, especially in a residential setting.

The entries were: a Snoqualmie River residence and a house in a mountain meadow. The winner, in a close race, was the Snoqualmie River residence.

The 10,000-square-foot winner is located in the foothills of the Cascades by the Snoqualmie River and a second-growth forest. The designer turned the project into a "concrete journey" that begins in the main hall of the house, travels through a series of concrete rooms and eventually re-emerges at a waterfall and hot tub in the forest.

The journey begins with a curving staircase that was made with poured-in-place concrete. The free standing structure leads down into a wine cellar.

The cellar features a vaulted ceiling that was designed to recall the Romanesque vaulted cellars of Europe. Construction of the vault used a similar process that would have been used for a stone or brick vault in Roman times. A timber mold of the entire inside of the space was built, beginning with a single barrel vault and overframing the intersecting vault. Arched top trusses and shoring below were used to support the weight of the concrete. A skin of concentric 4-inch-wide bands was then applied to the trusses. Concrete was poured, filling up the cavities with a consistent 6-inch thickness.

The journey continues beyond the wine cellar to what is known as the "Indian Tunnel" -- a 100-foot-long continuous barrel vaulted passageway. The tunnel features niches for artwork and complex vaults at every change in direction. Doors into the tunnel are also made of concrete and are opened electronically, somewhat like a secret passageway.

Exiting from the tunnel, the journey ends in the forest at an 80-foot-long concrete reflecting pool. The cast-in-place pool features sloped sides that terminate in a knife edge, helping to create a mirror-like water surface.

The house in a mountain meadow is on Squak Mountain at an elevation of 1,200 feet. The major design element that joins the house to the sloped mountainside is a 220-foot-long board-formed concrete wall that grows out of the hillside, forming a gallery that passes through the inside of the house and out the other side. The wall also functions as a support for the home's large, exposed roof trusses.

The floor of the house is concrete slab-on-grade with in-floor radiant heating and is stained a color similar to the domestic green slate used its counters and bath enclosures.

Project teams

Snoqualmie River residence:

• RSP/EQE, engineer;
  
• Strode Construction, contractor;
  
• Robert Edson Swain, architect; and
  
• Lone Star Northwest, concrete supplier.

Mountain meadow home:

• Voelker Engineering, engineer;
  
• Bender Chaffey, contractor;
  
• Curtis Gelotte Architects, architect; and
  
• Cadman Inc., concrete supplier.

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