brentwood, california
When a large lot became available next to our clients' gracious 1920s California craftsman-meets-neoclassical house, they asked us to develop a series of master plans options that explored how they might integrate this new property into theirs. This required an approach to creating both new interior and exterior spaces, and a weaving that would make the property feel whole. Beyond complex programming issues to address, there was one of our favorite design philosophy questions to answer: what is the appropriate design vocabulary when adding to a historically-referenced house? One of our studies explored a character that was a riff on the forms, materials and details of the original house. At the other end of our studies was a clearly contemporary pavilion. Here one of our inspirations was the iconic Schindler House in Los Angeles, ironically built in 1922, almost the same year as our clients’ house. We were intrigued by the thought of two houses with such different architectural views of beauty built contemporary to each other. The explorations shown here represent several, disparate studies made during our design process.
