Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date: 2023
Category: Single Family Residential

About this Project:

• Scope: Architect

• Floor Area: 6,975 sf

• Stories: 2 + basement

The Mandeville Canyon House is a private residence in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains on the edge of Topanga State Park. A small, flat site with a steep drop-off, the property has sweeping views of Los Angeles. The design complements the panorama by introducing multiple points of interest. Not a singular object, the house is a series of enclosures that set up niched gardens and frame both near and distant scenes.

The experience of the house is a response to its topography. It mediates slope by digging into, climbing down, and hovering over the land. Its spaces shift inside and outdoors and step up and down, giving each room a sense of independence. The two guest suites, two main suites, kitchen, living, office, and vertical circulation are their own interconnected volumes.

The house, as a result, has no front, no side, and no back; every vantage to it and from it is privileged. It is unified, then, through its materiality. Finished with natural wood, its spaces blend into each other and into the landscape. It stands out through a pitched roof system that bends and folds across the structures, tying them together, literally, with overhangs and, visually, with similar geometries.