Skylights add playfulness to this minimalist Los Angeles home
Architects Annie Barrett and Hye-Young Chung design Centered Home, a reimagined Los Angeles Spanish-style house

A Spanish-style Los Angeles house has been transformed into a minimalist, contemporary domestic haven, peeking behind a screen of San Pedro cacti. This is Centered Home, a project by Annie Barrett (of Aanda Architects) and Hye-Young Chung (of HYCArch), a team of architects who redesigned the existing property into a design-led abode with unexpected geometries and angular skylights, for a couple about to enter semi-retirements ‘and programmatic shifts that a new phase of life brings’.
The project’s street façade does not reveal much. A simple, clean, low rectilinear box is set back from the street behind the cacti garden, with a set of paved steps leading up to a discreet entrance, which is set to the one side of the building. Charred shou sugi ban rainscreen-cladding bridges the natural landscape in front and the minimalist architecture behind.
Stepping inside, the feeling is one of simplicity and brightness, underlined by the choice of materials – light colours throughout, broad, natural-timber Dinesen plank flooring, custom millwork, and crisp white plaster surfaces. The internal arrangement is built around a central ‘cube', a space off which spread the different functions. The most private areas are at the core, while communal and more public-facing spaces dot the perimeter of the floorplan.
‘While inside the house, one is either within the cube, or living between it and the visually porous exterior envelope of the building, creating direct connections to nature and amplifying the sense of the cube as a volume within a volume – or, a home within a house,' says Barrett.
Skylights at the top of angular, pyramidal ceiling shapes and skylights offer both a sense of drama and a meditative touch. Some are playfully concealed from different views, giving the sense of ‘a game of peekaboo as you circle the space’, says Chung, adding a touch of fun and the unexpected to this domestic interior.
INFORMATION
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor 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) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).
-
Have fun with Le Ster’s engagement ring collection
Le Ster’s engagement rings encompass bold and fun forms
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Palm Heights hotel is a Caribbean getaway with a game-changing new spa
Palm Heights hotel in Grand Cayman is the Caribbean destination that everyone is talking about. Here’s why
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Kent Andreasen on failed memories, the fear of AI, and keeping things simple
Cape Town-based photographer Kent Andreasen features in ‘Through the lens’, our monthly series spotlighting Wallpaper* contributors
By Sophie Gladstone • Published
-
This Shelter Island house is designed as a ‘modern cabin’
Shelter Island house by Koning Eizenberg is designed with a ‘modern cabin’ approach and aesthetic, keeping the owners close to nature
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas Scholarship at RISD supports access and equity in education
The new Rafael de Cárdenas Scholarship at RISD offers support for students at the school’s Architecture or Apparel departments; we catch up with the architect to find out more
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Texan family house foregrounds sports cars, secret spaces and fantastic finishes
Smitharc has shaped a formidable Texan family house in suburban Dallas, using courtyards and setbacks to create a series of intimate spaces within a substantial plot
By Jonathan Bell • Published
-
Compact Mount Washington house is designed for maximum impact
A Mount Washington house by Anonymous in Los Angeles makes the most of its views, steep site and small size
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Roberts Projects turns historic car dealership into characterful LA art space
Roberts Projects by Johnston Marklee sees the gallery launch its new home in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles
By Ellie Stathaki • Published
-
Council_St is a creative community hub crafted from a Historic Filipinotown garage in LA
A garage in Historic Filipinotown is transformed into Council_St, an artist’s studio and exhibition space, by LA-based architecture firm Formation Association
By Nana Ama Owusu-Ansah • Published
-
Studio Gang’s Richard Gilder Center brings organic tactility to New York City
The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation by Studio Gang marks a new era for New York City’s iconic American Museum of Natural History
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts launches its undulating Studio Gang design
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang opens in Little Rock, USA, blending new construction and renovation
By Ellie Stathaki • Published