Vault House by Johnston Marklee, California

Eager to break the mould of typically Californian beachfront homes with dark, huddled back rooms, Los Angeles-based architects Johnston Marklee came up with a radically different solution for this private residence.

(Image credit: Eric Staudenmaier)

By Ellie Stathaki

last updated 10 October 2022

in Features

The resulting Vault House is a smooth, pure-white rectangular block, cut through with arches, vaults and curving skylights that open up oblique and overlapping views

vault house entrance into courtyard — Though the building looks like monolithic cast concrete, it's actually synthetic stucco over a wood-frame construction. Wood was chosen over cast concrete because of cost, weight and seismic considerations

vault house living room — The ocean is visible from every room in the house, however far back, but the grand panorama of sand, waves and surfers practically inhabits the living room

vault house interior — The broad vaults, from which this house gets its name, shape the character of every room in this house. Even the ceilings are slightly curved

vault house central courtyard — The inclusion of the central courtyard was a key architectural strategy. This sheltered patio, doubling as an entry court, opens the way for layered transparency and allows sunlight to penetrate deep inside

vault house — Skylights often perforate the heavy vaults and arches, lightening the construction and brightening the interior

vault house parking garage — The parking garage, at the building's opposite end, had to sit directly on the ground, over walls engineered to collapse under huge-wave pressure

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).