Virginia-based studio David Jameson Architect has designed the multi-award winning Matryoshka House, a 3,200 square-foot single family home located in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Matryoshka House / David Jameson Architect:

“This small house is organized as a series of volumes nested one inside another. At the core, a suspended meditation chamber acts as the physical and spiritual center of the project. The internal energy of the meditation chamber is encapsulated within an open glowing frame. An alternating tread stair engages the participant to deliberately ascend the threshold to the meditation chamber.

The meditation chamber is surrounded by a wooden container which encases the living areas of the house. This shell is in turn cradled by stucco walls serving as a protective layer and grounding the house to the earth. The in-between spaces of the nested volumes are strategically sliced to allow the sun to protect lines of light withing.

By separating the three shells, the interstitial spaces allow light to become an architectural material that activates the interior.”