Soggy Hollow House: From Sketch to Reality

The Challenge: The owners of Soggy Hollow sought to transform their standard front facade into a rustic focal point that honored the traditional Ozark homestead. They had a strong vision and access to highly authentic local materials—including native sandstone and corrugated metal salvaged from a fallen chicken house—but they needed architectural guidance to confidently self-perform the construction.

The Solution: Stepping in as their design partner, we provided a streamlined, highly practical roadmap. Through clear conceptual sketches and focused on-site strategy meetings, we developed a buildable design that integrated a heavy rough-hewn cedar column and masonry planters, empowering the owners to execute the work with their own hands.

The Outcome: The completed renovation is a texture-rich study in rural materiality. Blending hues of rusted metal with deep stone planters and natural timber, the new entrance creates a grounded, earthy facade that perfectly captures the clients' vision of a true Ozark retreat.

The Concept Sketch

From Concept to Clarity: The initial sketched overlay was created directly over existing BIM data to refine the building envelops. This rapid "trace-over" process allowed us to align the developer’s vision with a cohesive, modern architectural language early in the project. The column base detail helped make it a reality.

Column Base Detail

The Porch Detail

Anchored in the Ozarks: The entry is defined by a massive rough-sawn cedar column resting on a plinth of local sandstone. This detail establishes a tactile connection to the vernacular of the region immediately upon approach. The weight of the timber and the irregularity of the hand-stacked stone create a sense of permanence and warmth, grounding the renovation in the geology of the site.

The Facade

Material Resourcefulness: The cladding tells a story of local history and adaptive reuse. We incorporated corrugated metal panels salvaged from a nearby fallen poultry house, repurposed to create a durable, weather-worn cladding. Paired with the natural stone base, the rusted patina grounds the house in its garden setting, demonstrating that high-design materials are often found rather than bought.

The Planters

Softening the Edge: Integrated stone planters were designed to soften the transition between the built structure and the landscape. By extending the sandstone masonry from the column base outward, the architecture bleeds into the site, creating a dedicated space for native plantings to grow up and embrace the rigid lines of the renovation.