This project sits on a tiny
lot in Venice, California abutting an alleyway, heavily trespassed as a
walking route to the Pacific Ocean just off of famed Abbot Kinney Blvd.
The home was commissioned buy a Hollywood director who was interested
in maximizing the natural light, ventilation while creating a dramatic
interior space.
The house makes use of its small lot by separating
the typical single object building into two parts, "floating" the main
house, in reflecting pools on the front, and the subsequent courtyard
created between the two buildings. The front water court, starts at an
elevation equal to the first floor and spills over a waterfall at the
entry, which is tiled in variegated shades of Blue Mosaic tiles.
The structure is "sliced" (hence the name), down the
length of the two buildings running down the middle and pulled apart to
create a continuous frameless glass skylight, which, creates a visual
line of sight while providing abundant natural light from the center to
all interior spaces.
The exterior is clad with a rain screen fabricated
from Parklex wood panels which form oversized 24” wide x 96” long brick
like panels that dissolve at the courtyard and provide edited views
beyond and within, and screen the voids created where the bridge that
connects the two buildings spans the courtyard. The Parklex panels wrap
from the exterior in the same module and joint spacing as the exterior,
into the kitchen and powder room to create a monolithic and solid wall.
The Parklex panels part and give way to a tall hidden door panel that
works within the grid pattern and spacing at the courtyard to floating
concrete slabs as a walkway over the water court for an alternate side
entry.
The central stair is fabricated to allow for open
risers and a stepped stringer to make a floating open riser with treads
of 2 in. thick hardwood. The stacked stair leads to a continuous
skylight with operable skylights that are thermostatically controlled
to work as a solar chimney to exhaust out hot air and funnel cool
prevailing ocean breezes into the home. The house is entirely passively
naturally ventilated and solar hydronic radiant heated.
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