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
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
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).
-
Ama Bar, in Vancouver, is sexy and a little disorienting
Ama Bar features ‘Blade Runner 2049’-inspired interiors by &Daughters
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Kembra Pfahler revisits ‘The Manual of Action’ for CIRCA
Artist Kembra Pfahler will lead a series of classes in person and online, with a short film streamed from Piccadilly Circus in London, as well as in Berlin, Milan and Seoul, over three months until 30 June 2024
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Monospinal is a Japanese gaming company’s HQ inspired by its product’s world
A Japanese design studio fulfils its quest to take Monospinal, the Tokyo HQ of a video game developer, to the next level
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A low-energy farmhouse provides a rural escape in North Carolina
This low-energy farmhouse is a net zero architectural re-set for a Californian client, an East Coast relocation for a more engaged and low-key lifestyle
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
A Petra Island house rises from Frank Lloyd Wright's original drawings
Based on Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, the cantilevering Petra Island Massaro House, located in New York’s Hudson Valley, is now open to visitors
By Craig Kellogg Published
-
An Upper West Side apartment by General Assembly nods to its history
An Upper West Side apartment in New York, born out of the reimagining of two neighbouring units, is refreshed by General Assembly for a young family
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
New York's Leica store echoes the brand's blend of heritage and innovation
Leica store throws open its doors in New York's Meatpacking District, courtesy of Brooklyn based Format Architecture Office
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Hudson Valley Residence is a low-lying retreat that seamlessly blends into the horizon
Designed by HGX Design, Hudson Valley Residence is a scenic home offering unobstructed views across the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Boise Passive House’s bold gestures support an environmentally friendly design
Boise Passive House by Haas Architecture combines sleek, contemporary design and environmental efficiency
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
At the Hilbert Museum of California Art’s expanded home, art and architecture converge
The Hilbert Museum of California Art expands its home, courtesy of Los Angeles architecture studio Johnston Marklee
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Pearlman Cabin by John Lautner is an organic Californian mountain retreat
John Lautner’s midcentury Pearlman Cabin, tucked away in the Californian mountain resort of Idyllwild, is a striking example of organic architecture
By Mimi Zeiger Published