Homes hold entire worlds within their walls. In fact, it is often what the home conceals that makes it truly distinct. Poised as close to the border of the ocean as southern Los Angeles makes possible, this residence unfolds unexpectedly in its program, materiality, and form.
Designed as the vacation retreat for a professional artist, the architecture embodies the concept of subversion. Counterbalancing the glow of the transparent doors, a dark terra cotta screen cloaks the northern facade. While it might appear to play a structural role, the screen’s 3,451 baguettes which rise from the earth and terminate in a wafer thin cantilevered roof, are purely ornamental.
The themes of privacy and opacity, and predictability and surprise, continue throughout the program. On the the third floor a hidden spa deck delights and a louvered garden waits to be discovered away from the eternal ocean view. It is in sum a sanctuary on solid ground.
