Camino de Robles is unlike any other house -- all 8,700 sq. ft. of it. A structure to be built of steel, stainless steel, stucco and glass, it's under construction high in California's oak-covered hills.

Calling it a house is an understatement. Fortress might be more appropriate to describe its scale and construction. It's designed to resist brush fires, high wind, intense sun, mudslides and earthquakes. Inside, it's pure luxury with amenities such as a commercial kitchen and a wine cellar that can hold 6,000 bottles.

And there is one other thing: The house will kill germs.

Well, at least its duct system will, along with the kitchen counters, doorknobs and a variety of other surfaces -- all of which will be built from a mirror-finished stainless steel that has a remarkable new coating.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The story starts in an Ohio steel mill, far from the rugged landscape where Camino de Robles is taking shape.

Germ-Killing Steel
There are two times in the manufacturing cycle of this steel when it will kill germs, once when it is red-hot and again after it is comparatively cool and coated with an antimicrobial compound known as AgIon. The name is a construction formed by "Ag" -- the symbol for silver taken from the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements -- and "ion."

AK Steel, headquartered in Middleton, Ohio, is the only company in the nation licensed to use AgIon, a revolutionary new coating that consists of ceramic particles and a silver compound. The supplier of the coating is AgIon Technologies, a Wakefield, Mass., company that makes antimicrobial products that are applied to steel, woven into fabrics and incorporated into plastics.

When applied to stainless steel, the AgIon coating releases silver ions that kill germs and fungi, such as mildew. AgIon-coated steel is shipped to sheetmetal fabricators, and manufacturers of hardware and appliances. By incorporating the steel into their products, they're adding broad-spectrum, germ-fighting capability.

AK Steel believes the coating does not present the risk of creating germ-resistant bacteria. The silver ions bind to random sites on the bacteria, making it more difficult for the bacteria to adapt and mutate into resistant strains. Thus, the dark environment inside a house's steel ducts becomes less hospitable to mold and bacteria. Any microorganism unlucky enough to land on it is soon snuffed out by the ions on the duct's surface.

Paradise Found
That brings us back to Camino de Robles. The name, Spanish for "path of oaks," was given to the house by its owners, Edward and Madeleine Landry. The structure is sited on a 132-acre parcel with roughly 2000 oak trees and plentiful wildlife, including deer, bobcat, fox and coveys of quail. A mountain lion is known to pass through on its yearly migration. The property borders Rocky Peak State Park and Pioneer Park near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

At press time, the house existed only as a set of blueprints, computer-generated drawings and foundation work. It's scheduled to be completed this fall.

Its construction is straightforward in some respects -- reinforced concrete block and steel stud framing covered with traditional portland cement plaster, otherwise known as stucco. But its roof is stainless steel and its custom-fabricated, laminated-glass windows are similar to those used in high-rise office buildings. In fact, the entire building has more in common with high-rise structures than even the most ruggedly constructed house.

The project started innocently enough. Madeleine Landry says that she and her husband wanted a 5,000-sq.-ft. dwelling, but because they ended up building in such a demanding environment, they decided to use high-rise construction materials and techniques. Then their architect convinced them that it was less expensive to simply scale the house up than to cut the oversize materials to fit.

And the house's scale is impressive. It's 275 ft. long and three floors high. The guesthouse alone measures 2300 sq. ft.

When AK Steel got wind of the project, it asked to participate as a materials supplier and enlisted Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona. He is to study the antimicrobial qualities of the steel surfaces, which will even include the kitchen ceiling, shown in the computer-generated illustration on this page.

Built like a fortress. Studied by a microbiologist. As we said, Camino de Robles is unlike any other house, at least any other house that we know of.

For more information on the project, visit the AK Steel Web site.