Alpine Modern
  • Locations
  • Inspirations
  • Careers
  • About

Sense of Place: Designed for legacy in Aspen

By Sandra Henderson

Aspen is steeped in tradition. Generation after generation, families vacation at the posh resort to ski in winter and to celebrate the town’s famous festivals in summer. Slope-side chalets and opulent second homes alike are built for legacy, as venues for extended family to gather and carry on traditions, season to season. A continuity that translates into architecture and decors of great depth and layering.

Black Birch Modern in Aspen, Colorado, by architecture and interior design firm Rowland and Broughton

Black Birch Modern in Aspen, Colorado, by architecture and interior design firm Rowland and Broughton

Nevertheless, even mountain folks for a fortnight must have functionality alongside style, beginning at the entry. “There is that sense of arrival at a mountain home,” says Sarah Broughton, co-owner of Rowland and Broughton (R+B), an architecture and interior design firm in Aspen and Denver. Aspen homes are planned with the understanding that one comes in from the elements. “People need to be able to knock snow off their boots.”

“Aspen homes are planned with the understanding that one comes in from the elements.”

Style without borders

Many of R+B’s clients have primary homes on the beach or in big cities, all over the world. “One thing that is important to them is that they really feel they are in Aspen,” says Broughton, a modernist at heart. To achieve this sense of place, she relies on natural materials such as wood, grasscloth, and natural stone — “things you see when you look out the window.” What’s more, treating woods in surprising ways, such as planking or wire-brushing, brings out something special in a natural material.

Broughton complements mountain settings and modern, clean lines with cashmeres and wools in the furniture and textiles. She loves to add ample pillows and throws on beds and couches. “Hemp, wool, and cashmere textures and patterns can speak to a natural environment without being literal,” the award-winning architect says. The beauty of sunlight falling through an aspen forest’s canopies, for instance, can translate into a pattern. Twinkling lights become reminiscent of a starry winter night in the Rocky Mountains.

“Hemp, wool, and cashmere textures and patterns can speak to a natural environment without being literal.”

Black Birch_61_Library-1

Black Birch Modern

With its clean-lined, minimal design, Black Birch Modern in Aspen is an example of a mountain retreat that not only boasts stunning alpine-modern architecture, but is warm and welcoming to boot. R+B achieved this balancing act by bringing outdoor materials inside. That, Broughton believes, is something anyone can do at home. “Carrying a material found around the outside of the house into the flooring, for example, is an effective way to blur that indoor-outdoor line, which is such a quintessential element of Aspen style.”

Bringing Aspen home

Give your home a touch of Aspen flair and make room for your own legacy. Create spaces where friends and family can gather to share food, drinks, and stories, while they sink deeper and deeper into your cashmere pillows and pull up their feet under a wool blanket.

Art from an Aspen gallery adds a fine finishing touch. “Bringing in local talent is a nice way to tie it to the place and a great way to modernize a home,” Broughton says. “Make it feel collected and not staged,” are her parting words of style wisdom. “Modern design has a lot of depth and layering to it. It’s not a one-hit wonder.” △

“Make it feel collected and not staged. Modern design has a lot of depth and layering to it. It’s not a one-hit wonder.”

Featured in Design with related topics Aspen, Cabins, Colorado, mountain homes, Rocky Mountains, Rowland and Broughton, United States, wood.
Share

More to Explore

  • Photo courtesy of Tetsuya Otani
    May 2, 2017

    Minimalist Pottery in the Kyoto Mountains

    An intimate visit with husband-and-wife pottery artists Momoko and Tetsuya Otani at their home and studio in Japan

  • August 22, 2017

    Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark

    If you must see one museum while in Copenhagen, go to the Louisiana. It’s about one hour north of the city and you can get there by bus or taxi. The exhibitions and installations are nice but what truly sets this museum apart is the architecture of the building and its setting on the water. …

  • November 11, 2017

    Inspirations No. 14

    Hope you’re enjoying a relaxing Saturday. We’re getting bundled up and about to head down to the Cafe for waffles with our guests visiting from California. There’s nothing like sugary waffles and warm coffee to kick off a weekend with friends. We’re so thankful for the success of Alpine Modern Cafe and the amazing staff …

  • August 1, 2016

    The Creator of Whimsy

    Danish architect and designer Hans Bølling talks with us about his iconic wooden figures, modern design and his wife and muse, Søs

  • August 22, 2017

    Samsung Serif Television

    Samsung’s newest television, the Serif, opens many possibilities for integration into the modern home. A long time ago, TV’s were built like furniture, and it’s nice to see the pendulum of design swinging back in this direction. View more information on Samsung’s website.

  • August 3, 2016

    Dwell × Alpine Modern

    We are incredibly excited to announce our partnership with Dwell

  • Interior design in Whistler, BC by Falken Reynolds
    December 23, 2016

    Sense of Place: Clean as in Whistler

    Chad Falkenberg of Vancouver-based Falken Reynolds talks about modern interiors in Whistler’s mountain homes and cabins

  • Drawing by Paula Ensign
    November 9, 2016

    A Drawn-Out Hike

    Seemingly so cumbersome compared with instagramming your every adventure, contemplative sketching in nature slows you down enough to see all the details.

  • March 10, 2017

    The Line between Everyday and Heirloom

    A Visit to the Lake Tahoe Home of the Owners of Heath Ceramics

  • October 29, 2016

    The Modern Craftswoman

    Crafting small leather goods and wood objects in Boulder, Colorado, Alexa Allen is an artist, a designer, a maker, and a mother

  • September 26, 2016

    Growing Up Weese

    The daughter a power couple of American modernism, artist Marcia Weese was born to design

  • November 13, 2016

    The Building Friendship

    Friends since preschool and sharing a love for design and the mountains, the founders of MTN Lab, an experimental furniture and art studio in Colorado, have always been building things together

  • Kindred Snowboards
    October 15, 2016

    Makers on Board

    Born out of passion for the ride, handcrafted snowboards, splitboards, and skis by Vancouver Island’s Kindred Snowboards feature marquetry artwork.

  • LapuanKankurit Misteli blanket and hot water bottle
    December 15, 2016

    The Weavers of Lapua

    More than a hundred years ago, the great-grandfather of Jaana Hjelt’s husband, Esko, opened a wool and felt boot factory in Lankilankoski, Finland, where the Ostrobothnian winters are freezing cold.

  • July 11, 2016

    Bavarian Rebel

    Avant-garde artist Bernhard Rieger — master of Lüftlmalerei, inventor of alpine pop art

  • October 28, 2017

    Pia Wallen Stockholm Design Studio

    We had the opportunity to meet with the renowned designer, Pia Wallen, in her magnificent Stockholm studio.

  • August 9, 2016

    The Woolly Wonderland of Donna Wilson

    A conversation with the London-based creator of cashmere creatures and other wild things.

  • October 1, 2016

    She Felt Beautiful

    Swedish designer Pia Wallén talks about her iconic Crux Blanket and the bold creations she makes from wool felt

  • August 20, 2016

    Seduction Design

    Former Eames art director and CommArts co-founder Richard Foy muses on the bowerbird’s incredible construction and composition skills and human design

  • July 20, 2016

    One Hundred Years of Swissness

    A renovation of a 1912 chalet so beautiful it spawns an interior design company

  • Company

    • Locations
    • Careers
    • About
    • Honor Card
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Inspirations

    • Architecture
    • Design
    • Elevated Living
    • Journeys
  • Connect

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Yelp!
    • Google
  • © 2018 Alpine Modern, LLC — Boulder, Colorado USA
  • Locations
  • Inspirations
  • Careers
  • About