House of Horns by WOJR offers a modern retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains
The House of Horns by WOJR is a remarkable architectural work nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. This contemporary residence rises from the remnants of a half-built Spanish-style home, transforming the incomplete foundation into a deeply thoughtful design that reclaims the hillside and harmonizes with its natural surroundings. It is a reimagining of place—where form, space, and nature converge into a unified, living instrument that responds to time and season.
From the outset, the home was conceived not merely as a building but as an assemblage of instruments—each element intentionally “tuned” to interpret the rhythms of nature. The titular “horns” reference not an animal motif but rather musical horns, evoking resonance, direction, and the act of amplification.
WOJR translated this metaphor into architectural features that orient and filter natural phenomena: sunlight, fog, breeze, and even the silence of dusk. These environmental qualities are not just passively allowed but actively curated, transforming the home into a daily and seasonal observatory.
Central to the project was the restoration of the site’s original topography. The design team buried the lower levels of the inherited structure, creating a home that is both embedded in and elevated by the landscape. This gesture created two spatial registers: the elevated single-story main house and the subterranean level composed of intimate, cave-like rooms.
The upper floor serves as the heart of the home, a continuous volume that facilitates gathering and shared experience. It is distinguished by a ceiling of inverted elliptical vaults, reaching out to the periphery and punctuated with carefully oriented skylights and clerestory windows. Each opening captures a unique aspect of the surrounding environment, allowing light and sky to animate the interior throughout the day.
Anchoring the central space is a monumental fireplace sculpted from Vermont’s Danby marble—a focal point and functional art piece that embodies the idea of a “project within a project.” This feature not only organizes the open-plan interior but also connects it metaphorically to the geological depths of both the hillside and the distant marble quarry. Below, the lower level unfolds as a collection of finely detailed chambers, culminating in a bathing space supported by an ovoid column carved from stone. These rooms interact with the outdoors through sunken courtyards, subtly framing views of the native meadow and distant vistas.
Outside, the landscaping echoes the architectural ethos. The hillside has been restored with drought-tolerant, native California flora—grasses, perennials, scrub, and live oaks. Rather than ornamental planting, the landscape is conceived as an extension of the house’s sensibility. It offers layered textures and hues that evolve with the seasons, enhancing the home’s experience of time and change. This cultivated wildness works in tandem with the structure, creating a seamless blend of architecture and ecology.
The House of Horns is not simply a home but a perceptual device—calibrated to amplify the overlooked beauty of its surroundings. WOJR’s design captures the ephemeral and the eternal, grounding modern life in the rhythms of the natural world. It is a meditative response to site, inheritance, and transformation, offering a model for architectural practice that listens before it speaks.
All images by Nick Dearden, with courtesy of WOJR, shared with permission
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