Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

Peek Inside this Contemporary Home Hidden in the Woods of Iowa

Kelsey Machado
By
ravine residence
Image used with permission by copyright holder

When you think of Iowa, you most likely think of corn fields and not noteworthy architecture. But hidden in a forest in Des Moines sits a home with an impressive architectural feature. Straddling a small, narrow gorge, Ravine Residence seems to defy gravity. The brainchild of architectural firm BNIM, this inventive home made perfect use of a seemingly unusable piece of land.

Covered in dense foliage and trees, with a ravine running through the middle of the site, BNIM was faced with a unique challenge: how to build a home on such a difficult spot. The solution was brilliant: a bridge-like structure of glass, wood, and concrete that all combine to create a visually stunning home that is both stylish and welcoming.

By turning the home into a bridge, BNIM was able to make clever use of the site and turn the ravine into a feature rather than a detriment (much like this River House). The “supports” of the bridge are the entry on one bank and the bedrooms on the other. The bridge section that spans the ravine houses the living area, creating stunning views from inside.

Recommended Videos

The client desired a deep connection between the home and nature, as well as requiring plenty of privacy. By situating the home over the ravine, allowing them to preserve the existing trees, the architects were able to use the natural surroundings to create privacy while still being able to incorporate plenty of views. The floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the home provided the owner with the desired connection to nature that drove them to build on such a challenging site.

Stepping inside the home, there is an office and a private patio to one side of the entry and a library on the other. Just past the library is the main attraction: the “bridge.” This bright, open space is suspended over the ravine and is where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are located. Walls of glass allow unobstructed views of the ravine below. The beautiful red cedar that clads the exterior continues into the interior, creating continuity throughout the design. Simple materials and furnishings lend the home a relaxing, minimalist feel.

Related

Beyond the living area are the master suite and two bedrooms on the first floor, while upstairs there are two more bedrooms. On the other side of the bank (on the second floor above the library) is a family room that looks down onto the ravine. Every room in the home features plenty of windows and simple designs, always ensuring the ravine and surrounding forest are the stars of the show.

Editors' Recommendations

Kelsey Machado
Kelsey Machado
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kelsey is a professional interior designer with over a decade of experience in the design field. With a passion for…
How long should you let new cigars rest in a humidor?
Cigar humidor

Looking at those beautiful, oily cigars you've just unboxed or unwrapped, the calling to light up is real. I get it. I always want to smoke my cigars right away, too. But you shouldn't. Mail day is always exciting after you've ordered a slew of new cigars. When they arrive, the real fun begins. You'll probably need to organize your humidor to make the new sticks fit or arrange them for optimal humidification. As you're handling them, it's difficult to resist the temptation to crack open the cellophane or boxes and smoke one right away. While you can do that in most cases, I would recommend against it. Depending on where those cigars came from, where you live, and how they traveled, they might need a little time to rest in a humidor. They'll need to replenish some humidity and moisture or dry out a little.
How long should you let your new cigars rest?

When you put cigars in a humidor, especially one that's filled, they'll soak up and release humidity over time until they reach the average RH (relative humidity) that you have set inside your humidor. If you have a device like a that does this automatically, it will produce moisture and humidity to keep the levels optimal. You can also achieve the same thing with in smaller humidors, which release and soak up the humidity to match the levels on the label. Boveda packs come in a range of RH levels, from the low to mid-60s to the mid-70s.

Read more
The 11 best Kevin Costner movies, ranked
He has a full resume of films, but if you're a Costner fan, then you must see these movies
Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves

An all-American, blue-collar working man turned Hollywood essential, Kevin Costner has lived a life full of experience and dreams that some can only imagine. Starting out as a small kid -- 5'2" at high school graduation -- who moved around a lot, Costner was fond of things like poetry, writing, and singing in his Baptist choir. Outside of the arts, he was also very interested in sports of all kinds, which is reflected in his film career to this day. Also a man of the outdoors, Costner built his own canoe at 18 and paddled it through sections where Lewis and Clark ventured. Fun facts aside, Costner had a full and interesting life before the world got to know him as the charming and eloquent movie man we know him to be today.
From his past life, accomplishments, and hobbies, Costner was fully prepared to write, direct, and act for the screen as he fulfilled yet another lifelong dream. A man who was once called "The King of the Sports Movie," Costner has been able to act in films of a subject matter near and dear to his heart that became the films he is best known for. And that doesn’t include his many other successful movies having to do with politics, crime, and romance that also make for some of his best roles. Luckily, we’re here to talk about all of those films at once as we celebrate the man who has accomplished more in one lifetime than some could in many. Here are the best Kevin Costner movies of all time.

11. Open Range (2003)

Read more
The best Quentin Tarantino movies, ranked – Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and more
If you haven't seen these films at least one time, you need to ... and then watch them again and again
Scene from Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson

Of all the contemporary film auteurs, perhaps no one’s work has permeated pop culture as thoroughly as Quentin Tarantino's. This director’s hyper-stylized, retro fantasy worlds have come to define cinematic coolness. His clever mashups of genres, exquisite sense of aesthetics, impeccable editing, uproarious suspensefulness, and impossibly quippy dialogue have been endlessly imitated.
Given the current political landscape, Tarantino’s work has undergone a serious critical re-evaluation from Black and feminist critics and scholars who point toward both his allegedly abusive behaviors and the offensive politics and rhetoric of his films. It’s true that in this new light, for many, there may be nothing redeemable about his entire oeuvre. 
However, to discard all Quentin Tarantino movies would discount the impossible talent of his frequent collaborators and stars, such as Sally Menke (who edited all of Tarantino’s movies until her death in 2010), Uma Thurman (who not only played the protagonist of Tarantino’s most iconic movies but was also credited as a co-writer on Kill Bill), Samuel L. Jackson (a frequent Tarantino star), and many more.
With that in mind, here’s our (subjective!) ranking of the greatest directed Quentin Tarantino movies of all time.

9. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)

Read more