Edmonds + Lee’s minimalist vision has maximum impact in this San Francisco home

Upon approach, the Remember House, clad in opaque dark panels, stands in sharp contrast to its surrounds. It sits on a thin, sloping parcel of land in San Francisco’s Noe Valley, designed by Edmonds + Lee Architects for a tight-knit family of three.
As a renovation project, it shares similar bones to the neighbouring houses, but the dark façade was meant to stand out. ‘We tend to think about architecture as this spectrum of uniqueness versus universality,’ says architect Robert Edmonds. Drawn away from the universally accessible city, the home ‘should heighten your senses’.
Edmonds is quick to qualify the firm’s ideal for capital-A architecture, adding, ‘It’s not a spectacle, but more of an atmosphere.’ The atmosphere inside the Remember House is ethereal: an immersive all-white interior palette. The white, which could easily read as stark and anonymous in a property market seemingly saturated with this aesthetic, instead comes across as uniquely striking and warm.
The kitchen, living and dining areas are open plan
The secret here is a relentless attention to detail. One example runs through the whole project: the white Douglas fir flooring, two inches thick, which adds a tactile richness grounding the concept. The architects call the interior ‘seamless’ and procession through it a ‘continuous thread of inhabitation’, citing architectural moments like where the white Corian shower stalls flow invisibly into the white walls beyond.
Rather than break up the procession in any obvious, jarring way – none of the doors have hinges, for example, nor disruptive door headers – rooms are defined through the spatial variety and dynamism that comes from a building thoughtfully designed in section. The whole house breathes outward, with the condensed circulation running through the core exploding outward into airy bedrooms and dramatic double-height living spaces.
The home is notable in its extreme purity of design, with every detail taken to its conceptual conclusion. In the architect’s own words, ‘When you’re in the house, you feel it. You don’t feel like you could be in any other type of space.’
A terrace with a lush living wall overlooks San Francisco
Two terraces are stacked upon each other creating a stepped garden, with stairs leading down to ground level
View from the garden to the back of the house
The street access to the house is discreet, with the garage extending forwards to the road
Kitchen interiors are kept minimal and neutral
A mezzanine level extends into the living area, continuing the stepped concept of the house
Storage for alcohol can be revealed or concealed to retain the minimal appearence of the interiors
Floor to ceiling glazing in the master bedroom opens up views of the city
Bunk beds in the children’s room
White Douglas fir flooring, two inches thick, features throughout the house
On the top floor there is a social area with pool table and wall of bookcases
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Edmonds + Lee Architects website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materiality
These are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A gallery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales showcases work inspired by nature
Thorns Gallery opens in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with founders Jonathan Reed and Graeme Black aiming to showcase artworks inspired by the natural world
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside a midcentury modern house so good, its architect didn’t want to mess with it
‘I was immediately a little bit frightened, because it was such a great house,’ says architect Casper Mork-Ulnes of Roger Lee-designed gem in Berkeley, California
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered