"Snow Country: Mountain Homes and Rustic Retreats,"
by Elizabeth Clair Flood, photographs by Peter Woloszynski.
Published by Chronicle Books. $40, U.S.

An Organic Journey

Architect David Lombardi of Whistler, B.C., loved contemporary styles as a young man living in Whistler, skiing and waiting tables. But he found few who shared his aesthetic. One evening when he discovered that his co-worker thought Andy Warhol was the coach of a local ski team, Lombardi left town and moved to Japan, where he taught English and studied architecture.

A fan of Frank Gehry's work, Lombardi soon tired of designing the boxy houses he had been taught to build. He challenged himself to build more organic spaces and experimented with leaning walls and curved interiors. He took this important advice from one of his Japanese instructors: "You can't build anything you can't draw."

Much of Lombardi's work reflects his appreciation for Japanese architecture. "Space and how easy we are able to flow in, around, and from it are key points in Japanese design. Space is limited, so it becomes one of the most important variables in a Japanese home," he said. When Lombardi finally moved back to Whistler, he applied Japanese building philosophies to his home. In a time when people are conscious of building environmentally friendly homes, Japanese ideas about conserving space are valuable.

To conserve space, David Lombardi created a master bedroom and bath all in one room. At night, he pulls out a Murphy bed from the wall. During the day, the bed flips back into the wall, leaving an enormous bathroom with a toilet in the middle of the room.		David Lombardi likes fragmented spaces because they inspire a journey to different levels. A dugout canoe and a wooden horse from Indonesia work in this colorful but spare setting. Inspired by Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, used broken tile on his kitchen counter.		Few people were interested in this building site because of the giant boulder occupying most of the lot. Lombardi chose to work with the rock instead of blasting it away.

Instead of building the typical gigantic log home so popular in Whistler these days — what Lombardi calls the "Brady Bunch variety" — he chose to hunker his building over a giant rock, an undesirable building site for many.

Inside, as in a Japanese home, the place unravels like a journey, with the master bedroom downstairs and the living quarters upstairs. There are few straight lines, and the spaces flow together. The tile countertop was inspired by Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi. The downstairs master bedroom and bath are particularly unusual. To conserve space, Lombardi and his wife sleep on a Murphy bed that disappears into the wall during the daytime, leaving a gigantic, spare bathroom, with a toilet in the middle of the room.

Elizabeth Clair Flood is author of five photography and style books and a contributor to such magazines as Architectural Digest. Peter Woloszynski is a free-lance photographer living in Bath, England. His work has appeared in such publications as House Beautiful and the New York Times.