Lap House

Set within fifty acres of sage-covered meadow, with expansive views toward Colorado’s Elk Moutnains, Lap House replaces an outmoded 1980s residence whose nine level changes no longer supported the rhythms of contemporary family life. The project presented a challenge central to R+B’s residential practice: how to create a home of significant scale that feels both deeply grounded in its landscape and intimately attuned to the values, rituals, and aspirations of the people who inhabit it.

The resulting residence is at once substantial and serene. It holds its place within the vastness of the meadow yet continually yields to the surrounding mountain landscape through carefully framed views, broad expanses of glass, and a quiet material palette. Clad in Danish brick whose handmade irregularity lends warmth and depth, the exterior recalls both the rugged character of the land and the simplicity of rural building traditions. Laid in overlapping horizontal courses reminiscent of wood shiplap, the masonry gives the home a grounded, tactile presence, while allowing its form to feel calm, composed, and enduring.

Inside, the architecture becomes increasingly personal. Walls wrapped in natural white oak create an atmosphere of warmth and tranquility, establishing a soft counterpoint to the home’s monumental setting. Throughout, architecture, interiors, landscape, art, and craft are drawn together into a single, holistic vision. A chandelier inspired by elements discovered by R+B in a Milanese chapel, a custom hand-loomed Japanese wall tapestry, and anodized Italian tile surrounding the fireplaces reflect a pan-cultural sensibility shaped not by ornament, but by meaning, memory, and material resonance.

For the family, the home needed to honor a love of music, art, natural beauty, and fine craft while remaining rooted in modesty, faith, and genuineness. That spirit is most powerfully expressed in the home’s signature: a Venetian-made stained-glass guardrail spanning the full length of the double-height living room mezzanine. With a pattern derived from a loved musical score, the piece is both technically ambitious and quietly devotional, an act of craft that transforms a functional element into a deeply personal expression of belief and belonging.

In the tradition of the bottega, R+B’s work on this project extended far beyond architecture alone. The firm designed the architecture, interiors, landscape, and nearly every detail of the home, from furnishings and fixtures to table settings and glassware. An extensive art program installed works from over 40 international artists and reveals a cohesive and collected sensibility in every corner of the home. The result is not a house assembled from parts, but a total environment in which every scale of design contributes to a coherent experience of place.