Berkeley’s reputation as a hotbed of technological innovation is also mirrored by its architectural legacy. This house by Donald Olsen at 775 San Diego Road is looking for only its third custodian since it was completed in 1954, built for pioneering Silicon Valley engineer and physicist Arthur Frederic Kip.

The Kip House was commissioned in 1952. Kip (1910 – 1995) spent a quarter of a century at the UC Berkeley physics department working in experimental physics, helping lay the foundations for the semiconductor industry that would eventually transform the fortune, demographic and global importance of this part of Northern California.

Kip was also an admirer of European modernism and the ethos and approach of the Bauhaus. Following World War II (in which he served in Anti-Submarine Warfare Research), he was in a position to commission a bright young local architect, Donald Olsen, to design a house that reflected his aesthetic preferences and professional ethos. The house was to exemplify ‘precision, clarity, logic, and innovation.’

Olsen (1919-2015) was a disciple of Walter Gropius, one of many pioneering German architects and designers who had arrived in America via the UK following their escape from pre-war Germany. Olsen studied under Gropius at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, eventually going on to work for Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Californian firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, responsible for Case Study House #3.

On his own, Donald Olsen never lost sight of European Modernism, even as many of his contemporaries went on to evolve the style to create the timeless form of Mid-Century Modernism that has become so closely associated with the West Coast. The Kip House serves as a transitionary work. The rigour and simplicity of the front façade is clearly Bauhaus-inspired, but as the house steps up the hillside it opens up into the wooded landscape, becoming more intimate and low-key.

Kip’s house sits alongside Olsen’s own house, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a City of Berkeley Landmark, and was published in the influential Arts & Architecture magazine in 1954. The house’s position on the slope is fully exploited by Olsen’s split-level plan, which incorporates a living space across the upper floor, set beneath the shallow pitched roof.

The main living space at the front of the house has a proto-high tech balcony cantilevered out from the façade, alongside a living area and study. Steps in the centre of the plan lead down to a kitchen and dining room with direct access on to the deck and rear yard. In total, there’s 5,706 SF of outdoor space, and 1,904 SF of indoor space, as well as a car port.

The architectural arrangement allows the occupants to live in the treetops, along with the primary bedroom suite at the rear of the property. Two additional bedrooms are located on the lower level.

Following the death of Kip’s wife Joan, the house went on to be owned by a prominent local lawyer who proved to be a sympathetic custodian of this unique house. She engaged architectural historian Pierluigi Serraino to document the house’s history and consult on subtle but necessary updates to preserve its unique qualities. Now a new owner is required to continue the legacy.

Kip House, Berkeley, is for sale at $1,425,000 through Anna Bellemo of District Homes, 775SanDiego.com, Anna.District-Homes.com

Each year, Monterey Car Week culminates in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event, held on the Pacific-side greens of this ultra-exclusive northern Californian golf club. Alongside multiple new reveals and iconic classics, the event’s 75th edition saw the hammer fall on three-quarters of a billion dollars’ worth of historic metal, a new record.

The 2026 edition of Monterey Car Week wrapped up on August 16th after ten days of reveal events peppered across the picturesque Californian peninsula against a backdrop of the lavish and loving display of hundreds of classic cars. The week centres around the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the world’s largest automotive affair also turned heads with its record-breaking auction sales, courtesy of sales by RM Sotheby’s, Gooding Christie’s, Bonhams and Broad Arrow.

In all, sales totalled $755.6 million (£558.7 million), with modern cars occupying over half of the handshakes. Eleven cars saw buyers for $10 million (£7.4 million) or more while the highest price tag was a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe which sold for $42.905 million (£31.758 million). Designed by Pete Brock, the vehicle was produced only in six editions, including this auctioned chassis CSX2300 which was once owned by Carroll Shelby himself.

There was also the remarkable sight of the first-ever Ferrari Luce selling for no less than $40m through RM Sotheby’s, a result notable for many reasons, not least for being the highest ever price realised for a brand-new car (let alone becoming the most expensive EV ever sold). The buyer is reputedly a serial offender at the art of transforming cars into big-ticket auction records; the Luce lucre was effectively handed, less commission, straight into the coffers of Ferrari’s charitable arm.

The concentration of the world’s top car designers, brands, collectors, and aficionados on this breezy, historic West Coast grounds lent itself – unsurprisingly - to a social affair centred around buzzing displays, test rides, and after-hours gatherings. Just like other niche industries such as art, watch, and furniture, luxury automotive sector also thrives on desire, innovation, and the oomph effect.

One of the premium events of the week is The Quail, a high-end car show with a big sticker ticket price and a host of niche and premium brands jostling to show their wares to their target demographic. Across the packed itinerary, standouts included Cadillac’s main event, Curated by Cadillac ESCALADE IQ, which celebrated the all-electric flagship SUV for a customised experience. The concierge-led program allows customers to craft their very own vehicles through a generous option palette which reaches up to a million permutations, including 106 colours.

According to the brand’s executive design director Dominic Najafi, ‘the real twist’ in their broad offering is the addition of a new Santorini Blue pipping. ‘You normally wouldn’t see such colouring in piping in combination with tan and grey interiors,’ he told Wallpaper*. Najafi sees this accent as part of their emphasis on ‘expressing American luxury,’ and added: ‘We are not just copying rituals from Europe – we are creating a distinctive American experience.’

The Detroit-born 124-year-old manufacturer’s other offering was V-One, a new medley concept of their signature V-series with a single-seat competitive spirit innate to race cars. The hardware specific to racing is alchemised with a human touch that focuses on driver comfort and confidence. ‘If it doesn’t make the car go faster, we don’t put it in,’ said Sean O’Shea, Propulsion Manager of Cadillac’s LMDh series, about the concentrated tight design vision.

O'Shea added that the interior team uses similar materials in such a specific vehicle but translates their understanding of ‘luxury into a pure performance environment.’ Najafi also noted that the main design challenge was to represent the impression of the night in the car’s outfit. Rather than simply choosing a black finish, the team created a nocturnal effect with paintwork which yields flakes of blue when the sun hits the grey surface.

Lamborghini, on the other hand, joined the spectacle with Revuelto SV, a lineage that the Bolognese luxury car maker started 55 years ago. In this upgrade, a lightweight body and optimised aerodynamics result in a vehicle that can speed up to 345 kilometres per hour, which makes this version of Super Veloce the fastest Lamborghini car produced in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Black accents and a redesigned fierce SV logo on both sides convey a sharp statement of luxury.

Among the world debuts was RUF’s new performance car, Ehra, named as a nod to Phil Hill’s victory at the Ehra-Lessien proving ground in 1987. Given the vehicle’s historic homage, a nostalgic form outfits a 650-horsepower engineering in a bold hue of grey; inside, titanium pedals and hand-stitched light brown flag pattern and matte carbon trim accompany lollipop seats in a light brown hue which provides a dramatic but comforting completeness.

The Audi Nuvolari made its US debut at The Quail after first appearing at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc during the Monaco Grand Prix in June. The first modern supercar to come out under the vision of the German car manufacturer’s chief creative officer Massimo Frascella, the hyper halo car will be produced in an edition of 499.

The hybrid vehicle speaks with its futuristic, almost mysterious, body dressed in a moody titanium skin. The ability to reach 349 kilometres per hour is matched with a design and experience-forward philosophy which is evident in a low mid-engine body and a seamless appearance. The car later went on to the prestigious Concept Lawn at Pebble Beach, where it was seen alongside other recent design studies like the Vision BMW Alpina, the Bugatti Destrier and the Aston Martin Valen.

The main event was soundtracked by growling engines and echoing conversations and perfumed by the unmistakable tang of oil, petrol and faded leather. The Concours d’Elegance competition is scattered across the ocean-side golf course, with 218 cars representing an impressive slice of automotive history.

This year, Best in Show went to a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster originally owned by Clark Gable and presented by one Harry Yeaggy of Cincinnati, Ohio. A classic piece of inter-war design, it brought the event’s timeless sense of American luxury into sharp focus.

WhatsUpMonterey.com, Cadillac.com, @Cadillac / RUF-Automobile.de, @RUFsince1939 / Audi.com, @AudiUSA

Sidell Pakravan have completed a family house refurbishment in a Berkeley Hills neighbourhood, taking an existing mid-century house and sympathetically upgrading it without compromising its essential qualities. House Vert arose out of a desire for more space, more than the traditionally low-slung largely single-storey mid-century archetype could provide. Originally built in 1963, the house was subject to strict site conditions that precluded any extensions due to the area’s zoning and waterway restrictions.

Sidell Pakravan, a firm founded by Sidell Pakravan and Kristen Sidell in 2014, were up to the challenge. The house is located in a creek, with a site that slopes steeply away from the road and provides verdant views out of every window, preserving all the existing trees.

By adding two new vertical elements to the floorplan, including the expansion and revision of the single upstairs room, the architects have brought light into the heart of the plan as well as expanded the available floorspace to a total of 2,000 square feet.

The existing structure was substantially altered and upgraded, with a new kitchen from Henrybuilt, as well a bespoke drainage, erosion and stormwater plan developed to ensure the newly updated house had no additional effects on the creek below the site.

The dark new exterior cladding uses traditional Sho Sugi ban treated timber, far more attuned to the deep greens and browns on the landscape, in place of the more generic varnished timber cladding of the original. Sharp edges and neat junctions emphasise the geometric structure and give the house a bolder presence.

In addition to the Henrybuilt kitchen, the interior has been lightened throughout, with a combination of white walls, timber floors and bespoke elements like the new walnut panelling in the entrance vestibule, above which the original lean-to porch has been replaced with a fourteen-foot volume equipped with high level roof lights.

The new principal suite is located in the second vertical volume, reached by a slender but sculptural staircase that leads into a bedroom, large walk-in closet and a bath set amongst the tree canopies. Located at the rear of the property, the main bed overlooks the creek in the backyard.

Two more bedrooms are located directly beneath it, along with a family bathroom. Henrybuilt was also responsible for the floating bench and console unit in the living room, while the custom mantel was supplied by Montana Timber Products.

‘The neighborhood in Berkeley where House Vert is located has a wide range of untouched and eclectic mid-century homes, many of which have not been touched since they were built,’ says Sidell Pakravan, ‘Our vision revolved around keeping the elements of the spirit of the original house while creating a better sense of cohesion. The refined interior contrasts with the wild landscape, which we kept intentionally untouched to integrate the updated home into its original context.’

SidellPakravan.com, @SidellPakravan

Majestic places can easily become etched in our memory. Some spots are so beautiful that they may even inspire a Grammy-winning song, as is the case with Mendocino, California – the inspiration behind Willie Nelson and Lee Ann Womack 2002 rendition of 'Mendocino County Line.'

The lyrics speak to fading love. But they also evoke the idyllic coastal region’s lasting beauty. And that’s the reason why entrepreneurs Nadia Oka and Michael Topolovac selected a 53-acre plot of land there on which to build a retreat for their young family.

For the job, the couple tapped architect Mark Jensen. 'They have reverence for the land and wanted to do something really special up there, so I was immediately compelled,' Jensen, principal of the San Francisco-based firm Jensen Architects, says.

That 'really special' something is a linear glass, steel and cast concrete-structure that is as intentional in its modesty as it is balanced amongst the old-growth oaks in the surrounding woodland ecosystem. Set on a rolling hilltop at the northwest edge of the Russian River watershed, the 2,025 sq ft two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home – with its clean, geometric modernist lines – feels more like an extension of the land than a juxtaposition to it.

'One of the unique things that really informed a lot about this home is the fact that they ended up building it mostly themselves,' explains Jensen. 'Michael's an engineer [and] built himself a welding shop up there and actually made all the custom storefront windows and pivot doors and cut all the metal cladding panels – it’s really insane how much work they did.'

That significant amount of work, as it turns out, wasn’t initially part of the plan, Michael, who was trained as a product designer and engineer, says. But as they spent more time at the site as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the family fostered 'a very deep engagement with the process and build' alongside the architects. He even modeled the entire house in OnShape (a 3D cloud-native CAD program) to help work through the various design elements he would undertake.

The overall design – one of three or four that Jensen presented to his clients – is rooted in the late British geographer Jay Appleton’s half-century-old 'prospect-refuge' notion of aesthetics that satisfy the innate desires for opportunity (prospect) and safety (refuge).

'I read Appleton’s [1975 book] The Experience of Landscape many years ago, and that theory has always resonated with me,' Jensen shares. He offers a cinematic metaphor for the approach: 'In all the classic Western movies, when you go into the saloon you sit with your back to the wall looking toward the door, otherwise the gunslinger’s going to come in and surprise you.' He continues, 'I think we’re just hardwired to want that kind of protection around us – and then to look out at that panorama!'

Composed of a board-formed concrete expanse, a steel skeleton and massive sheets of shaded glass, the home has 'some definite heroic structural moves,' per Jensen – including the dramatic, cantilevered roof. 'The entire roof is detached from the concrete wall, so you get a continuous skylight,' he explains. 'I have to say, you don’t often get balanced light in that way – and in the middle of the day when the light grazes the concrete, the texture of the board form really shows up.'

Aside from the thoughtful aesthetics of the project, sustainability and fire safety – given the area’s history of wildfires – were paramount from the start, so no combustible materials were used on the roof or exterior walls, including for the soffit underneath the roof that is composed of a Wildland-Urban Interface certified wood. The house also relies on solar power for electricity, and passive design techniques to minimise energy demands.

The most important resiliency measure is on the property itself: 'The brush has been cleared a fair distance around the house, and there are sprinkler systems and a second water tank so there’s capacity for firefighting,' the architect says.

No surprise, the architect's favourite spot in the house comes down to the prospect-refuge concept. He points to an open breezeway that divides the home's public and private wings: It’s an exterior space that allows you to look across from the pool all the way through the house and out to the western view framed by the walls which, arguably, makes it even more special – it’s a space they use a lot that blurs the boundaries between inside and out.'

As for the homeowners, it’s the future of the house that has made the whole project worthwhile. 'At almost every juncture, I would look at the material choices and the design approach, through the prism of "this is a life-of-the-house solution" for generations [of our family] to come,' explains Michael. 'It is the spirit of that – bringing this project to life with such permanence for those closest to us – which has been so deeply rewarding.'

There is one name almost inextricably bound to Palm Springs’ mid-century architecture: the American architectural firm Palmer & Krisel. The partnership between architect William Krisel and developer George Alexander produced thousands of homes that came to define the clean lines, indoor-outdoor living and innate optimism of the region’s famous desert modernism. Yet what many people don't realise is that the architectural language that transformed Palm Springs was first explored not in the desert, but in California's San Fernando Valley – more commonly known as, simply, ‘the Valley’.

Now on the market is one of the earliest examples of Palmer & Krisel's collaboration there. Completed in 1954, this home in Corbin Palms, Woodland Hills, belongs to a neighbourhood that served as an important testing ground for the design principles that would become synonymous with California modernism. Today, Corbin Palms remains one of Southern California's most significant – yet often overlooked – mid-century modern enclaves.

This renovated post-and-beam residence expresses many of the architectural ideas that would soon define Palmer & Krisel's celebrated communities. An exposed timber structure, soaring vaulted ceilings, clerestory glazing and an open-plan layout fill the interiors with natural light, while expansive walls of glass beckon the outdoors in. The emphasis on openness, climate-responsive design and economy of means – achieving the greatest architectural impact with the fewest necessary elements – would become hallmarks of the firm's later work in the desert.

The home’s recent renovation honours that legacy. Contemporary materials and modern systems have been integrated without compromising the original architecture: a kitchen with custom white oak cabinetry, quartz countertops and polished concrete floors sits easily within the home's framework, while a restrained material palette keeps the focus on the expressive post-and-beam structure at the heart of the design.

Outside, the integration of architecture and landscape – central to Palmer & Krisel's vision of California living – is evident. A swimming pool, outdoor kitchen, dining terrace, mature citrus trees and landscaped gardens extend the home's living spaces into the open air.

While Palm Springs will always be most closely associated with Palmer & Krisel, Corbin Palms deserves recognition as the place where many of the ideas that would define California modernism first took shape. For the home’s next custodian, this is not just any mid-century residence – it is an opportunity to own a chapter in one of the most influential stories in American residential architecture.

The Palmer & Krisel home is listed with The Value of Architecture for $995,000.

The canyons of Mission Hills, one of San Diego's most sought-after neighbourhoods, are home to the Bone Residence, one of Southern California's finest expressions of midcentury modern architecture. Commissioned to architect Richard Lareau by Jack Bone and completed in 1961, the residence is a symphony of warm cedar, glass walls and indoor-outdoor living. It is now on the market for $2.59 million.

The home embodies the philosophy that defined Lareau's career: that a house should do more than occupy its setting – it should engage with it. At the Bone Residence, a cascading series of decks and patios steps down the canyon, framing views of the downtown skyline, San Diego Bay, the Pacific Ocean and even Tijuana to the south. Inside, nearly every living space looks towards the canyon and the city beyond, while the post-and-beam structure – a hallmark of midcentury modern design – creates open, light-filled interiors.

The house also showcases many of the defining characteristics of California modernism: exposed structural framing that celebrates the building's construction, broad roof overhangs, strong horizontal lines and a restrained palette of natural materials, including timber and masonry.

Lareau is one of the architects most responsible for shaping San Diego's post-war identity. Completed only a few years after he established his own practice in the late 1950s, the Bone Residence helped define that architectural language, and is widely regarded as one of the finest-preserved examples of his work. Lareau would go on to design numerous custom homes throughout San Diego, as well as major institutional projects including much of the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University and the Mission Bay Visitor Center.

Although less celebrated than some of Lareau's later commissions, the Bone Residence remains one of the defining works of his early career and a landmark of San Diego's architectural identity. It distils the qualities that came to define California modernism: expressive yet lightweight structure, an effortless openness to nature and an architectural approach that treats dramatic topography not as a constraint, but as the foundation of the living experience.

The Bone Residence is listed with Keith York at Agents of Architecture.

In contrast to the compressed, efficient install that's often typical of high-end residential design efforts, Jamie Bush welcomed an extended timeline when transforming a midcentury Pierre Koenig house – a 1966 home originally designed by the Southern California modernism master.

‘It was this slow, layered process, which was wonderful,’ the Los Angeles–based, New York–bred designer says. The clients, who live in Washington, DC, bought the property as ‘a hideaway in California that they could escape to, but live a very different life. They tasked us to reimagine the house as a contemporary craftsman/artisan take on this midcentury treasure,’ Bush explains.

The four-bedroom, relatively compact house sits on a bluff in coastal Rancho Palos Verdes, a neighbourhood located south of Los Angeles. While the property was structurally intact, a prior renovation that Bush describes as ‘a clean, impersonal contemporary take’ on Koenig's celebrated post-and-beam work – which includes the famed Case Study Houses #21 and #22 – called for a soulful update (the project was first reworked in 2000 and subsequently again in 2014).

Revisiting this Pierre Koenig house's midcentury materiality

Bush took a hyper-sensitive approach to remove overly clinical interventions from the early 2000s. ‘This is a good example where Koenig would have black posts and beams and white walls, which we wanted to keep,’ he states. ‘Then there would be isolated moments of wood and colour with a lot of his buildings. It was an opportunity to bring in the crafted layer on top of this midcentury pavilion.’ As per the oft-followed West Coast impulse, exteriors and interiors would be seamlessly integrated, here in collaboration with SoCal native landscape gurus Terremoto.

Like all quality architectural rehabilitation projects that don't set out to make a time capsule, the founder of Jamie Bush + Co drew upon both intensive research and creative licence. ‘We basically did a partial restoration and reimagining of this house because they didn't want to recreate everything that was historical,’ he explains. His experience reviving other historical homes, such as John Lautner's Silvertop in collaboration with architect Barbara Bestor, informed the strategy.

So, the house's signature chevron-profiled folded-plate roof and its existing wood surface treatments, open floor plan, and footprint were to remain. Specific features begged for proper repair, notably the red brick-clad fireplace that had been swathed in dark grey by previous owners. Bush then took the bold yet fitting step of freshly coating the front door in a reddish-persimmon hue.

His handling of millwork illustrates how Bush identified and navigated certain currents in the Palos Verdes Koenig. ‘When many of these houses were built originally, they would have one craftsman that would build the cabinetry and the panelling,’ Bush notes. The primary bedroom is panelled in ipe tropical hardwood (this was preserved, as it was introduced during an earlier refresh), and the same cladding has now been extended to the library. The whole is articulated ‘in the same language’ as the building's exterior wood elements, resulting in ‘more enveloping and rich’ spaces.

He further explored material expression via walnut cabinetry and terrazzo surfaces in the kitchen and bathrooms. ‘There's a modesty and an economy, if you will, of using the same materials – maybe in different colours and in different ways – so there's like variations on the theme,’ Bush elaborates. When customising the earthy grey terrazzo mix, ‘I wanted chunky – that sort of slight primitiveness. It's not something necessarily that Koenig would use, but it felt right,’ he says. The result reads as refined Flintstones, less fictionally futuristic Jetsons.

A through-line of what he describes as ‘a modernist, natural aesthetic [with] a midcentury ethos of form and texture highlighting materiality’ emerged from this particular mix of furnishings, decor, and art that also operate as foils for the architecture's pronounced geometry. ‘It was a great challenge to heighten all the textures and the natural finishes and the wabi-sabi of the perfect imperfection in natural materials and patina of vintage pieces, and highlight it by eliminating strong colour,’ Bush observes. Nonetheless, artwork by the likes of Jonathan Ryan and Alexander Calder introduces subtle chromatic components.

Along with collectible objects of domestic and global origins ranging from George and Mira Nakashima to Sergio Rodrigues, Bush was drawn to historical and contemporary artisans and artists with California ties. Works by Florence Nolan, Peter Voulkos, Mattea Perrotta, Bradley Duncan, Casey Johnson, and Commune appear in the home's cosily scaled spaces. Outside, a large-scale, turquoise-hued installation commissioned from celebrated ceramic artist Stan Bitters animates a wall next to the pool, its reflection seen dancing on the water's surface.

To ensure that the indoor-outdoor spatial dynamic would feel ‘like one idea’, Bush called upon Los Angeles landscape firm Terremoto to transform the grounds by activating the home's two private courtyards, installing new plant life throughout, and enhancing the view corridors. Drought-tolerant, low-maintenance plantings are simultaneously environmentally preferable and practical, given that the homeowners are part-time residents.

Terremoto's plan integrated other design considerations, too. ‘Spare sculptural plantings made their way into the house as well,’ Bush says, emphasising the interplay among cacti and succulents, and the home's tactile artworks and sculptural furnishings. Steps away from the pocketing living room doors, Terremoto shaped an outdoor patio with a fire pit to function as a viewing platform for enjoying the proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The sandstone hardscape reflects ‘a palette that would respond to the interior finishes’, Bush adds.

This holistic, multidisciplinary coordination, which unfolded over multiple years, demonstrates how the design team found common ground between homage and interpretation. ‘We tried to honour and respect the original intent of these indoor-outdoor spaces,’ Bush says. ‘We think Koenig would have appreciated this level of consideration and craft if he were practising today.’

jamiebush.com

For decades, one of architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s most intriguing works remained almost unknown outside of architectural circles. Sitting on a quiet stretch of Solana Beach, San Diego County, it was known only to the family who built it. Now, for the first time, the Chapman Residence has come to market (following Kellogg's Kravis Residence earlier this month), listed for $4.75 million, offering a glimpse of what happens when an ordinary tract house is transformed into a work of art.

In 1960, artists Wayne and Barbara Chapman purchased a modest suburban home. After marrying in 1969, they enlisted Kellogg to reinvent it. The transformation occupied much of the 1970s, turning an unremarkable house into something almost unrecognisable from its origins.

Kellogg worked closely with the Chapmans throughout the project. Wayne effectively acted as construction manager, recruiting friends to help source massive utility poles and thousands of board feet of rough-sawn redwood, while Barbara shaped the interiors. The result, therefore, is less a conventional architect-client relationship than a collaboratively hand-built home where, as Wayne later recalled, nearly every piece of timber bore his own fingerprints.

The roughly 3,900 sq ft, three-level residence is defined by Kellogg's signature organic architecture. Sculptural fireplaces anchor many of the interior spaces, while flowing, curvilinear forms dissolve the boxy logic of the original house. Redwood and glass dominate the material palette, complemented by hand-carved timber entrance doors. A dedicated ceramics studio was created for Wayne's practice, and arrival at the house unfolds through a sequence of Japanese-inspired gardens.

This experiential element was central to Kellogg's architectural philosophy. Drawing on Frank Lloyd Wright's principles of organic architecture, he pushed them into a more expressive, biomorphic realm. Here, structural elements evoke ribs and bones, while forms borrow from shells, plants and geological formations. Craftsmanship – in wood, stone and concrete – is inseparable from the architecture itself, and the relationship between house and garden is treated as every bit as important as the interiors.

Carved from the shell of an ordinary suburban house, with portions of the original structure retained even as its identity was completely reimagined, the Chapman Residence is unmistakably Kellogg. Yet it is equally a testament to the Chapmans, whose vision, labour and artistic sensibilities shaped every stage of its creation.

The Chapman Residence is listed with Keith York at Agents of Architecture.

Sitting among tangles of oak and Monterey pine, on the lip of a canyon in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Owl House is part art, part architecture, its rich contradictions impossible to grasp at a glance. The redwood structure looks different from every angle, emerging onto the street like a fox's den hollowed out of the brush, or perched like a massive nest from the canyon behind. Where it looms largest, however, it is also generously glazed, giving it the all-seeing gaze of its namesake. Inside, it feels exposed, enclosed and, in some places, both. Sculptural, layered and textural, it offers a series of inhabitable collages that are rigorous in their geometry, reverent toward nature, but playful nonetheless.

Discover this refreshed Mickey Muennig house in California

Designed in the early 1970s by architect Mickey Muennig, the house was restored in 2024 by landscape architect Bernard Trainor of Ground Studio. Then last year, its interiors were renovated by Wallpaper* US400 honoree Nicole Hollis' San Francisco design studio for a pair of empty nesters, who use it as a weekend retreat. Like so many things that come to define the identity of a place, the house's Californian aesthetic was created by a transplant.

Muennig, who would come to be known as ‘the man who built Big Sur', moved to California from Missouri and the Midwest. Having studied under Bruce Goff, he travelled to the nearby Esalen Institute in 1971 for a Gestalt therapy workshop and never returned home. Instead, he began to design unusual buildings, using organic forms and local materials that bridge indoors and out. On a ridge above Big Sur, Muennig embarked on private architectural experiments that embraced nature, light and views: a stone and glass teepee with a bed suspended in its conical crown surveyed the sea, while a boxy house nearby featured tiered, spiralling redwood ceilings and a living room bisected by running water.

Meanwhile, he was also designing lush coastal homes and celebrated Northern California destinations: the Baths at Esalen, the Hawthorne Gallery, and the plush Post Ranch Inn, whose guest rooms took the form of treehouses and burrows with wildflower-sown roofs. Architecture became an extension, even a totem, of the landscape, a link between human and nature. The Owl House had presaged themes that Muennig would play with in much of his later work.

Also a transplant, from the southeastern coast of Australia, Trainor became a temporary steward of the house in 2023. His restoration stabilised and protected materials ranging from the copper roof to wooden decks. ‘It was a passion project that combined art and design, and it brought together years of learning along the way,' he says. In late 2024, when a longtime client bought the house, Hollis and colleague Adele Cunningham set to work with great restraint. The result is clarifying, drawing the architecture to the fore and making room for its new residents.

Essential to Muennig's design are moments of sculptural intensity. The entrance operates as a human-scale collage featuring radial trusswork, a semicircular skylight, layered doorways, cut-away walls, and a tilted demilune clerestory window. Wooden collages by Japanese artist Kishio Suga, chosen from the couple's existing collection by consultants Mary Zlot and Sabrina Buell, resonates with the house's language of fragmentation and flow.

To their credit, Hollis' team cleared the space instead of filling it. They opted for materials that complement rather than contrast, and fewer furnishings that, no matter their age, might have always been there. ‘It's a small house, so I didn't want to overwhelm or overthink it,' says Hollis. ‘You don't want to crowd that architecture. You want it to sing.'

Hollis understood the architecture as tactile as much as it is visually extreme. Texture here serves as a unifying principle, with expressive wooden ceilings and terracotta floor tiles. ‘We thought, are the tiles too busy? They're so graphic,' Hollis recalls. ‘But then we all got used to them, and now we can't imagine the house without them.' Harmonising with the redwood and the brass of the fireplace, colourful textiles add cosiness and energy to each room.

Like texture, geometry is palpable throughout, from the hexagonal tiles to the curving walls. In the kitchen, revitalised cabinetry is faced with vertical slats in varying widths, while a globe pendant and loop-base table echo the house's porthole windows. Because the plan resembles a nautilus shell (with bedroom walls curling into cylinders that contain baths), Hollis commissioned rugs from Vaheed Taheri and brought in rounded furnishings with circular or semicircular oversize pulls.

To keep the interiors relaxed, Hollis' team either met the house's whimsy halfway with curved pieces and happy hues, or stepped back to let it play out. They didn't touch the mushroom-shaped window above the kitchen sink, or the mezzanine's pony wall, cut away in a shallow arc that Hollis describes as ‘a smile'. But they brightened the living room with a green sideboard by Matthew Raw and a red sofa by George Smith: ‘Items that one might not want to live with every day,' she says, ‘but that help create an escape from everyday life.'

Outdoors, the garden continues to be a passion project for Trainor, who wove together plant species such as banksias and persimmons to make it feel ‘as if you were walking through a painting', and designed a cedar and brass fence that gambols across the undulating terrain, echoing the language of the house. The result is not a backdrop but a blossoming that feels as whimsical and wild as the architecture it embraces.

nicolehollis.com

bernardtrainor.com

This article appears in the August 2026, Creative America issue of Wallpaper*, available from 2 July in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

For the first time in three decades, one of La Jolla's most celebrated architectural treasures is coming to market. The Thomas C Kravis, MD Residence – a remodel completed between 1976 and 1987 by the organic architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg – sits on Vista Del Mar Avenue, steps from the legendary Windansea Beach.

Although the home dates to the 1940s, its story truly begins in the 1970s, when physician Thomas Kravis purchased the property and turned to Kellogg (1934-2024) to reimagine it. At the time, Kellogg was at an early stage of his career – before the sweeping, almost sculptural fluidity that would define later works, such as the Doolittle Residence in Joshua Tree and the Yen Residence in La Jolla. Working within the constraints of a standard city lot, he demonstrated here that organic design doesn’t require a grand scale to make an impression.

The property announces itself through its stacked wood fascia, which frames the rooflines and signals something a bit different from the surrounding streetscape. Inside and out, Kellogg deployed his signature textured concrete – a recipe entirely his own – that originates at the interior fireplace and flows outward into the landscape through planters, water features, garden walls and seating areas. Natural wood and earthy tones lend the home a particular warmth, a quality that has made it a perennial favourite on the La Jolla Modern Home Tour.

The residence gained a further dimension in 1998, when the parents of the current owner – architect Yum Kee Fu and his wife Susan – undertook a two-year renovation that wove nature-inspired Asian detail throughout. Their most exquisite contribution is the upstairs suite, where artisan-crafted interior doors feature intricate wood inlays. The work was guided by Yum Kee Fu's philosophy that any design should 'create and meet the peaceful environment and peaceful nature of life'.

The residence comprises three bedrooms and three bathrooms, with ocean and sunset views throughout. The primary suite – accessible via an exterior stairway and complete with its own rooftop deck – functions equally well as a self-contained one-bedroom apartment.

The Kravis Residence is a home shaped by three distinct creative hands across five decades, each leaving its own mark. Available off-market, it is a rare opportunity to own a work of enduring architectural significance in one of Southern California's most coveted coastal neighbourhoods.

The Kravis Residence is listed with Keith York at Agents of Architecture.

A fan of the architect? Tour another Kendrick Bangs Kellogg California gem

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

Nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Sierra Madre, a 1947 adobe home – a traditional building method using sun-dried bricks of organic materials – has been reimagined. Removed from the noise and polish of Los Angeles, this neighbourhood is shaded by California oaks, eucalyptus and pine, and shares its hillside with bears. It's an unusual setting for a design story.

The home’s transformation began with a fire that destroyed much of the structure, leaving only the original adobe brick wall standing. Rather than rebuild from scratch, designer Kirsten Blazek of A1000XBetter chose to work with what remained.

‘The overall vision was to maintain as much of the original character and style of the home as possible, while making it more functional for modern living,’ she explains. New rooms were added – a kitchen, a primary suite, a family room – though the expansion was restrained. ‘We worked mainly within the original footprint,’ the designer notes, ‘only adding a small amount of square footage for the primary closet.’

On the original adobe side, the layout was left untouched. The hallway windows, original to the 1947 build and ‘one of [Blazek’s] favourite features’, were preserved. ‘I wanted the house to feel like a modern California hacienda,’ she says of her guiding aesthetic, ‘and embraced that through every colour choice and finish.'

That palette draws directly from the landscape. Dunn-Edwards paints in warm, grounded tones – including an exterior shade named ‘Wild Horses’ – echo the surrounding terrain and scrubland. ‘I very much gravitate to an earth-based palette,’ says Blazek, ‘and the location at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains made that feel completely natural.’

Recreate the mood

The interiors, meanwhile, speak to a lifelong passion. ‘I have a deep connection with the American Southwest and have long collected Native American and western-influenced art and objects,’ she says. Yet the rooms never tip into pastiche. Midcentury furniture – sourced from MidcenturyLA, Amsterdam Modern and Lawson-Fenning – grounds the collected pieces with clean, modern lines. Rugs from Pampa and Salam Hello add warmth underfoot; drapery by Zak and Fox frames the windows. ‘I never want my work to feel too referential,’ Blazek reflects. ‘I love midcentury lines, so there's a pleasing blend of both genres throughout.’

Among her favourite moments is the dining room fireplace – original to the house, but updated with dimensional tile from Lofa Tile. Nearby, a framed print by artist Mark Maggiori anchors the wall. ‘It's one of my favourite pieces,’ she says. ‘I was grateful to finally find the perfect place for it.’

Between the ancient craft of adobe and the clean geometry of midcentury design, this renovation represents both preservation and reinvention – a modern hacienda rooted in its land, its past and the strength of Blazek’s vision.

Designed by architect John Lautner in 1962, in the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly Crest, the instantly recognisable Sheats-Goldstein Residence has long played a starring role not only in architecture history books, but also in popular culture (from The Big Lebowski to Helmut Newton photographs). Originally commissioned by the Sheats family, the house and estate were acquired in 1972 by businessman and basketball fan James Goldstein, who, recognising its importance, bequeathed it to LACMA in 2016.

Explore the Sheats-Goldstein Residence by John Lautner

The modernist architecture fabric's longevity and the site's continuous functionality and health owe much to Kristopher Conner and James Perry, of LA firm Conner + Perry, who have overseen works and designed additions there since 2015 (both had worked for Lautner's associate Duncan Nicholson, who continued working at the property following Lautner's death in 1994).

Putting their intimate knowledge of the estate to good use, the pair not only worked on the restoration of the main residence, but also completed the most recent phase of the ongoing entertainment complex project, known as Club James, which is tucked underneath the estate's infinity tennis court on an adjacent site bought by Goldstein.

It now complements the residential element perfectly, providing users with a fully functioning nightclub, including a VIP room/library, offices for the owner and his assistants, an outdoor terrace with dining and kitchen facilities, and a pool and spa.

Conner and Perry are becoming the go-to architects for Lautner restoration, having recently completed the refresh of another of the modernist's masterpieces from the early 1980s, Lautner's Castle, a private home in California.

‘What Lautner understood, and what working on the Sheats-Goldstein house proves every day, is that great architecture isn't a finished object. It's a living idea,' Perry says. ‘We've been privileged to be part of that conversation and the continuously evolving work.'

conner-perry.com

One side of California architect Wallace Neff's practice was designing mansions for Hollywood A-listers like Groucho Marx and Judy Garland. Another was was designing wildly innovative houses. One such home is for sale right now in Pasadena, California for $1.95 million, the last of eight 'Airform' houses. Neff designed this two-bedroom, one-bathroom house in 1946 for his brother Andrew.

As a sideline to his tony mansion-crafting work Neff (1895-1982) conducted a number of experiments starting in 1932 with what were known as 'balloon' houses. What is that? Well, in this case, industrial-strength neoprene nylon was inflated to a desired dimension and then topped with Gunite, a type of concrete sprayed from a hose. Add a layer of insulation and another layer of concrete and you’d have an Airform house. They could be completed in as few as 48 hours.

Gunite enables easier curves than casting or pouring concrete does and is most commonly used in swimming pools. A number of architects made use of it, from Richard Neutra to Jacques Couëlle and John Covert Watson. In the case of Neff's Pasadena house, city officials were unsure it would hold up; Neff found a Caltech professor to vouch for its stability, and it stands as a futuristic presence still today.

The dome makes for a dazzling interior, 12 feet high at its apex with partitions for the two bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen. Neff observed in Architectural Forum in 1946, 'The absolute absence of girders, columns and jigsaw trusses startles the imagination.' The rooms are about half of the slices of this circle, rotating around a remarkable cantilevered chimney.

The owners, Priya Girishankar, a media executive, and Damon Cleckler, a Carvana product executive, were well familiar with the 1,204 sq ft house from two decades of visiting a friend there who died in 2023. Cleckler tells Wallpaper*, 'The moment you walked into the home, you knew how incredible and special it was. It blew our minds.'

They suffered another loss of their own when their Gregory Ain house was destroyed in the 2025 Eaton fires. Girishankar notes that this work was 'our path forward after losing the Ain house. The decision to buy and restore the Neff bubble was a labour of love. It allowed us to bring back the house to a place that we hope and believe Neff envisioned when he built it.'

The house required a little work, with electrical, heating, air, and plumbing updates, as well as concrete repairs. Their most consequential restorative act was healing a decades-old dent from an HVAC unit. With technological advances it was now possible to remove these and utilize a ducted mini-split. Cleckler says, 'This would allow for the shell to return to it's original glory as a standalone unit, unencumbered by the steampunk-like barnacles of big aluminum tubes, conduit and metal boxes.'

The property sits on a 9,000 sq ft lot and also contains a 1,000 sq ft detached studio space with its own living area, bathroom and bedroom. Fifteen feet beneath that is another atomic era surprise: an Airform bomb shelter.

Cleckler explains, 'It's not showy. It's not a statement. It's a type of solution that came with affordances not typically found in a rectilinear box. It's more organic than organic architecture, and therefore it has a kind of unusual purity to it.'

Rudolph Schindler designed houses 'as if there had never been houses before,' famed architecture critic and writer Reyner Banham once said. Bold and exciting, it's a statement that captures the Austrian-born, California architect's oeuvre and attitude. Schindler's modernist architecture is found in great numbers in the City of Angels, a known treasure trove of modernist houses. He crafted homes big and small, designing some 100 residential projects, many radical and thought-provoking, as he sought to challenge the era's norms through his Los Angeles houses.

Who was Rudolph Schindler?

Rudolph Michael Schindler (1887-1953) was born in Vienna into an artistic family with a deep appreciation for craft. He studied at TU Wien (the city's well-regarded University of Technology) before attending the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1911. In 1914, he moved to the USA, where he started working for Frank Lloyd Wright, whose work he discovered while still in Austria via the Wasmuth Portfolio, a folio containing 100 of Wright's lithographs, published in 1910.

Schindler worked on the Hollyhock House project in Los Angeles, among others, during his time at Wright‘s studio. Soon after, he left and completed his personal home on Kings Road in Hollywood. It marked the beginning of Schindler's mission to develop his own, distinctive iteration of modernist residential architecture.

Rudolph Schindler's architecture style

Known for his characterful residential projects, organic spaces and built-in living scenarios, Schindler stood outside the modernist mainstream of the time, which was largely represented by his fellow architect and friend from Vienna, Richard Neutra.

Schindler‘s projects broke away from the austerity of functionalism and focused primarily on the emotional aspect of architecture and the spatial character of a living environment. Influenced by Wright, his mentor, Schindler created homes that draw on the principles of organic architecture, and the influences of 20th-century Austrian architect Adolf Loos; in particular, his idea of a more vertical hierarchy of spaces, known as 'Raumplan'.

Schindler's career and portfolio

The lack of standardisation in Schindler's work and his moves away from modernism's functionalist roots led to his work not being included in the seminal exhibition International Style at MoMA in 1932. Still, until his death, Schindler built around 100 residential projects.

Schindler homes vary in style and materials, representing the architect's explorations and his architectural evolution over time. His work went through different stages, mostly defined by the materials he used – from his early 1920s concrete houses, he progressed to plaster-covered designs in the 1930s, and through to wood and stone organic creations towards the end of his career, in the 1940s and 1950s.

16 Rudolph Schindler homes in Los Angeles

Curator, architecture historian and writer Adam Štěch toured Los Angeles in search of Rudolph Schindler homes. Here, he captures for us 16 of his most exciting creations.

Kings Road House (Schindler House)

When? 1922

Kings Road House was one of Schindler‘s first independent projects. It reveals the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, but Schindler transforms that into a distinctive style of his own. Initially, the building functioned as a home and studio for the architect, his wife, Pauline, and another couple, Clyde and Marian Chace. The living space is arranged as two L-shaped pavilions around a large garden, with floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed wood structural details. With its openness and Japanese sensibility, the house is a remarkable emblem of the modernist movement. It was restored in 2003 by architecture studio Marmol Radziner. Today, it is owned by Friends of the Schindler House, with support from the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).

How House

When? 1925

Located in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, where Schindler built many of his projects, the How House was completed in 1925 for railroad heir James Eads. It is made of redwood beams, poured concrete and stucco. Interconnected cubes contain variable spaces differing in height and atmosphere. The spaces feature overlaying forms and lines, seen more clearly in the geometric beam work of the large living room, with its iconic corner window in a subtle wood frame. Designer Taska Cleveland recently restored the house for a new owner, respecting its original soul.

Herman Sachs Apartments (Manola Court)

When? 1926

Commissioned in 1926, The Herman Sachs Apartments were built for German painter Herman Sachs. Composed of rectangles on the steep site, the complex was expanded between 1934 and 1940 to a total of sixteen cityview residences.

William E. and Stephanie Oliver House

When? 1934

Oliver House represents one of Schindler‘s career highlights. The house, built on a steep plot in the Silver Lake area, is set back on the plot and is reached by a set of steps lined by elegant tubular metal handrails. Inside, the architect created an open, flexible space with multifunctional furniture units, such as the living room seating corner with built-in tables and shelves.

Walker House

When? 1936

Walker House shows Schindler’s ability to build on awkward, even downright tricky, sites. The residence faces the Silver Lake reservoir and is elevated over the steep hill on pillars. Its geometric facade, with a variety of offset rectangular windows, faces the water, while the entrance is located on the top floor on the other side. The lower level contains bedrooms furnished with Schindler’s signature built-in furniture. Walker House was bought by journalist and modernist design aficionado Andrew Romano a decade ago, who has been working on its restoration since.

McAlmon Duplex

When? 1936

The McAlmon Duplex includes two private homes on one lot. Originally built in 1923, the structures were remodelled by Schindler in 1936. Large overhangs and a powerful use of geometry place this house as one of Schindler‘s best interpretations of International Style. It was also influenced by the Dutch movement De Stijl.

Bubeshko Apartments

When? 1938–1941

With its decorative concrete caps on the garage walls, crafted by sculptor Gordon Newell, this project evokes the precast concrete blocks of Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan Revival architecture. The Bubeshko Apartments were commissioned by Anastasia Bubeshko and her daughter Luby.

The Samuel T. and Pauline Falk Apartments

When? 1938

Commissioned in 1938 by Samuel T. and Pauline Falk, the Falk Apartments are composed of rectangular volumes that perfectly fit into the steep hill of their Silver Lake area plot. Inside, four different living units unfold.

Guy C. Wilson House

When? 1939

Another Schindler‘s residential gem in Silver Lake, Guy C. Wilson House is a definitive example of modernist composition, with its recessed and stepped facade composed of rectangular volumes, large window openings and an unusual, overhanging roof. Inside, one can find a multi-level white space with built-in wooden furniture.

Pearl Mackey Apartments

When? 1939

Owned by the Austrian Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), the Pearl Mackey Apartments are currently used to host artists' residencies. A crisp, white, International Style facade with large windows conceals duplex apartments behind it, featuring ingenious built-in furniture elements.

Droste House

When? 1940

Built for the Droste family in Silver Lake, this house contains one of the most authentically preserved interiors by Schindler. The green composition of overlaid and protruding rectangular volumes, typical of Schindler’s late 1930s style, stands out for its large window in the middle of the street-facing facade, which gives the house a panoramic view over the Silver Lake reservoir.

Kallis House

When? 1946

Located in Studio City, Kallis House and its art studio were commissioned by production artist Maurice 'Mischa' Kallis. One of the most organic and playful Schindler houses, it features angled walls and fittingly bespoke-designed interior furnishings. In 1993, Schindler's associate Josef Van der Kar cleverly converted the house's open patio between the living quarters and the art studio into an entertainment and family room.

Roxy Roth House

When? 1946

Commissioned in 1945 by screenwriter and actor Roxy Roth House and located in Studio City, this is another feast of late-career Schindler work, full of surprising forms and organic-inspired spaces. The composition includes a curved car shed converted into a studio. It has recently been restored by architect Barbara Bestor, following a past restoration, in 1998-1999, by architect and contractor Jeff Fink. The house is currently for sale, listed by Crosby Doe.

The Laurelwood Apartments

When? 1948

Located in Studio City, The Laurelwood Apartments comprise two terraced blocks containing two-bedroom flats divided by a central patio. The project's total of twenty units was constructed using modular techniques to address post-war material shortages.

Adolph Tischler House

When? 1950

Designed for craftsman, designer and inventor Adolph Tischler, this house is one of Schindler’s last projects in which he experimented not only with space and construction but also with colour and light. Schindler covered the main living room at the top of the structure with blue translucent corrugated fibreglass panels - this caused the light to take on a deep blue hue inside. Tischler also designed some elements for the house, including a metal fireplace.

Phillip and Phyllis Schlessinger House

When? 1954

The very last project of Rudolph Schindler can be found in Los Feliz and was completed one year after his death. The house is defined by a cascading facade, which internally helps create a cosy, organic living room area.

For those feeling the pull of the open expanses of the American West Coast, a Linda Taalman house would be the perfect place to set up camp – and such a home might indeed be within reach, as a lone, off-grid structure nestled among the wilderness of Lone Pine, CA has just come on the market.

Explore this Linda Taalman house for sale in Lone Pine, CA

The project was designed by Taalman on a piece of land between Eastern Sierra and Death Valley, and gifted to one half of a client duo, Karen Rathburn, by her father. Karen and Gary Rathburn built the home as a true labour of love over eight years (four of them literally building it by hand). Surrounded by magnificent views, this architecturally precious home was worth the wait – offering a cinematic experience as well as a wildfire-prepared shelter with minimal footprint and a strong sustainable ethos.

Taalman is known for her brand of desert modernism, which combines deceptively simple and open forms, often in utilitarian glass and steel, with sustainable architecture principles – including prefabrication and modular design to avoid waste and site disturbance in a way that adapts to the arid landscapes she often works with.

The clients have strong family roots in the area, so cared about creating a home that is respectful to its site, while allowing them to take it in and celebrate its unique nature. Large windows and open terraces work towards that, blending inside and outside seamlessly.

The result is not only striking to live in, but also deeply embedded in its context. Vistas of the region's peaks are on offer, including Eastern Sierra, Lone Pine Peak, Mount Langley, Owens Lake, Inyo Mountains and Alabama Hills. The last is a stone's throw away and the legendary filming site of some 400 movies (many classic American Westerns among them), TV shows and commercials – adding a precious layer of popular culture to this property too.

Agents: Jeremy Howe Steenblik and Nate Cole with moderncaliforniahouse.com

Price: $1650000 USD

Address: 3800 Granite View Dr, Lone Pine, CA

Set within Napa Valley’s storied To Kalon Vineyard, Robert Mondavi Winery is widely credited with putting California wine on the global map. When it opened in 1966, its mission was as much cultural as oenological: to welcome the public into the experience of wine. Its iconic tower and sweeping arch – designed by midcentury designer Cliff May – served as both beacon and invitation, signalling a departure from European-inspired models toward something distinctly Californian.

Over time, however, as the brand expanded and the campus grew in an ad hoc, increasingly inward-looking way, its identity diffused. The facilities no longer reflected advances in winemaking or how visitors engaged with it, prompting a dramatic reimagining. For Aidlin Darling Design, the San Francisco–based practice known for finely tuned, site-driven work rather than large corporate commissions, it was an unexpected but compelling opportunity. ‘This is a project that’s way too important – we have to do it,’ recalls founding partner David Darling.

The intervention, says brand marketing director Peggy Hemphill, preserves the estate’s legacy while bringing production to a state-of-the-art level and rethinking the visitor experience – 'blurring the boundaries between architecture and the land’ to reconnect guests with the vineyard and the Mayacamas Mountains beyond. At its core is a renewed emphasis on place: opening the estate to its surroundings and integrating production with hospitality.

The reimagined campus – spanning 216,000 sq ft – pairs restraint with clarity. Decades of accretions have been stripped back and replaced with new layers that sharpen May’s original vision. The arch and tower are restored and repurposed, while a new south wing gathers indoor and outdoor hospitality functions beneath a dynamic, canopy-like roof that stitches together tasting rooms, terraces, retail and a courtyard. An adjacent wood-clad culinary wing and veranda further expand the estate’s public-facing role. Designed for Napa’s climate, many of the open-air spaces can be enclosed with sliding or pivoting glass. On the production side, upgraded fermentation and barrel cellars are on display, bringing the winemaking process into view.

A defining gesture is the inverted gable roof – a multipurpose form that collects water, echoes the Mayacamas Mountains, and establishes a clear dialogue with the historic structures. The project is also grounded in its materiality: concrete walls have an intentionally earthen character, while salvaged wood – oak tank staves marked by peg holes and wine stains, along with heavy timber beams – carries the imprint of the winery’s past into its present. ‘If architecture can have terroir, we wanted it to have a sense of terroir,’ says Darling, framing the project’s link between land, history and human craft.

Sustainability, particularly water stewardship, is central. ‘The future of winemaking is dependent on water – how we use it, how we conserve it, and how we clean and reuse it,’ Darling notes. That thinking informs everything from advanced wastewater treatment to an architectural language that makes cycles of collection and renewal legible. It extends to the buildings themselves: ‘To the greatest extent possible, we wanted to reuse the existing materials and structures,’ he adds – preserving legacy while embedding more responsible practices.

Led by Roderick Wyllie of Surfacedesign, Inc., the landscape design was developed in close collaboration with Aidlin Darling, creating a range of integrated indoor-outdoor environments that offer both expansive and intimate experiences. ‘People can enjoy being outside and feel that connection to the land and the vineyards,’ he says. Native plantings – oak, grasses, manzanitas, yarrow – combine with sculpted topography and locally sourced stone to root the experience in Northern California.

That same emphasis on stewardship carries into the landscape, where water also plays a central role. A bioswale captures runoff for reuse, while an aqueduct-like feature—fed by roof water and composed of quarry spoils and reclaimed slab material—runs east–west, alluding to the connection between the Mayacamas and the Napa River. This focus on natural systems extends to the ground plane, where the former event lawn has been reshaped into a sequence of naturalistic garden rooms, with pathways that draw visitors toward the vineyard itself.

For Mondavi, the transformation is less a reinvention than a realignment – bringing the winery back into closer register with the land, and with the cultural ambition that first defined it.

If it was up to Sabine Marcelis, cellphones would be checked at the door at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The Dutch artist and designer known for her geometric forms attended the festival for the first time last year with her partner and their six month old child. This year, she's back with Maze a new temporary installation on the grounds.

Maze is an inflatable sculpture crafted from PVC in a gradient of red, orange and yellow that is at home in the desert. While its shape and color are inspired by the contours of the surrounding Coachella Valley and high desert region that Marcelis spent time in as a teenager, she is quick to clarify it is not a direct translation.

'I wanted to bring the movement of the mountain ranges and create a setting that felt very isolated from its surroundings as you are very walled off once inside. I wanted to create the feeling of being surrounded the same way the Coachella Valley is by the mountain ranges,' she says.

The installation, commissioned by Public Art Company who handles all of the visual art at Coachella, has a purpose beyond its aesthetics. 'Having gone to Coachella myself, I understood how important it is to be able to find that shade at the festival. I however did not want to create a canopy-style work,' says Marcelis. Instead, the walls of Maze provide shade during the day, creating growing pockets for relaxing as the sun moves. Sculptural benches in matching sunset hues line the exterior and pepper the curves of the maze, providing seating. When the sun goes down, pulsing strips of light inside the inflatable walls are illuminated, creating what Marcelis hopes is an 'all encompassing experience.'

From ideation to installation, Maze took one year to complete. The process began with research during Marcelis’ initial visit to the festival grounds last year. She worked on sketches from April until July before going into production, finishing at the end of 2025. The production and final install was done by a local team, requiring tremendous trust from Marcelis. 'I’m a bit of a control freak,' says the artist, who is used to working with her usual production and installation teams at home in Rotterdam. Less than 24-hours before the festival doors opened, she saw the piece installed for the first time. As daylight moved into golden hour, she finalised the light programming.

Marcelis describes Maze as a 'complementary experience' to the music that will surround it. Festival goers can use it as a place of refuge, whether to escape the sun or easily find friends when cell reception is lost. She believes the best way to experience the work is to allow oneself to pause and appreciate the light and shadow the work creates and enhances.

While Marcelis thinks Maze is best experienced as a moment between experiencing music, when asked which artists from the 2026 lineup she’d pair with the work, she was quick to suggest Dijon, The XX, Röyksopp and Solomun. Attendees who don’t want to miss a moment of music can view the festival’s two main stages from select spots within Maze.

Marcelis knows inevitably, many festival goers will see the work first for its content creation opportunity, but she wishes they wouldn’t. 'It’s not intended as an Instagram moment,' she says, 'I want festival attendees to feel enveloped by the installation and to really feel a moment of calm and wonder between the moments where they are feeling the music. I want people laying on the grass and draped over the seats.'

To honour the artist's intention, consider Maze an exercise in making memories over creating content.

From the suburban street in Fairfax, in California’s western Marin County, only a pop of colour in the form of a row of bright yellow clerestory windows hints at the creative world behind the wooden fence. They announce the arrival of a brand new garden studio, created in the backyard of a historic property by Northern Californian design and architecture firm ONO.

Founded in 2020 by architects Tyler Noblin and Max Obata, who met while working at Snøhetta, ONO aims to create ‘thoughtful yet provocative workplaces’ and ‘iconic yet liveable residences’. The team works from a San Francisco studio full of plants, drawings and music, and were perfectly attuned to the challenges of designing a creative yet practical space.

Tour this characterful garden studio in California

ONO’s Two-Fold garden studio was commissioned by the owners of a 1912 home in Fairfax, a general contractor and a ceramic artist and Pilates teacher. The brief asked for a multifunctional garden pavilion that felt equally pragmatic and unusual, befitting of the surrounding undulating hills and greenery. ONO’s core goals were to ‘design a structure that extended all the way to the property line without feeling imposing while maintaining a strong connection to the landscape and creating a natural, airy interior’.

Created with a keen awareness of the historic home at the front of the property, the new building features a natural cedar shingle façade that echoes the original home. Its modified L-shaped form folds around cherished existing trees to frame an intimate courtyard, while the interior creates two distinct spaces: an artist’s studio opening onto the courtyard; and a Pilates studio accessed through a large pivoting screen door.

‘The site is an irregularly shaped corner lot with a significant slope, many stone retaining walls, and an existing main house with a distinct character that needed to be respected,’ explains Obata. ‘These constraints pushed us toward something we wouldn’t have found on a more straightforward site. We set the building quite close to the front street to create a protected courtyard between it, a significant retaining wall, and the main house.’

Drawing inspiration from Kyoto’s Ryoanji Rock Garden, ONO treated the structure as a viewing pavilion that can be completely opened to the surrounding landscape. ‘The courtyard idea led us to think carefully about how someone actually looks at a garden,’ says Obata.

‘We had explored the Ryoanji rock garden in prior research, and one of its core ideas stayed with us: that lifting a viewer even slightly above the ground plane changes their relationship to the landscape. You become a beholder rather than a participant. We applied that directly here. The studio floor is raised just enough above the courtyard that when you're working or moving through a pilates session, you're looking down onto the garden.’

The studio’s roof extends to shade the low wooden deck, effectively creating a third space within the small footprint. Sliding doors connect the courtyard garden and studio, which is oriented to catch the evening sun. Meanwhile, the Pilates studio is illuminated in the morning and faces the historic house.

At the back of the structure, the yellow clerestory windows funnel light into the studio, creating sightlines of the surrounding tree canopies while preserving privacy. ‘They’re a favourite of ours because of what they reveal about how the building was made. Our builder was also our client, and he brought a level of care that you don’t often get in this type of project.

‘With the clerestory windows, you can trace a continuous line from each structural bay down through the window mullions and into the wall below, following the load path through the building. It’s quiet but precise. And in summer, with the large sliding doors thrown open, the afternoon light comes in late and high, and our client can work on her ceramics well into the evening, while enjoying privacy from the street.’

As for the bright, sunny yellow colour of the window frames, it reflects the art being created inside. ‘Our client works with bold colour in her ceramics, so we knew the palette had to be able to hold its own,’ explains Obata.

‘We kept the material language simple: natural cedar, zinc countertops, blue-stained millwork. Within that, the yellow windows found their place immediately. They work against the warm reddish brown of fresh cedar, and they will work even better as the cedar ages to silver grey,’ he continues. ‘There's also something about them facing the street. The yellow is a signal to anyone passing by: we want our privacy, but we're friendly neighbours!’

ono.co

almconstruction.com

annalisachasan.com

A reimagined modernist home, Hilltop Residence flaunts its low, linear volumes, designed to take in the expansive horizon. Set within Los Altos Hills, the house, which has been brought into the 21st century by Michael Hennessey Architecture, offers long views and the warmth and spaciousness of its midcentury peers; at the same time, it has been restored and refined to tackle its current owners' contemporary lifestyle.

Tour Hilltop Residence by Michael Hennessey Architecture

The project is located on a gentle slope and was originally built in 1959. Spanning a single level, in tune with its genre's typical house design, Hilltop Residence is now the main base of a family of four.

A dramatic cantilevered steel-and-wood carport marks the entrance to the home, which was reconfigured to work with the rejigged internal layout. Soft, brown cedar soffits and framed views of nature from the large windows maintain a warm, nature-informed environment throughout. Meanwhile, black steel detailing provides bold accents.

The architects reimagined the interior completely, focusing on opening up the smaller, partitioned spaces into generous rooms, improving both lighting throughout and the internal flow. For example, now the kitchen, dining, and living spaces have been merged into a single sequence.

More timber throughout the construction includes Shou Sugi Ban exterior cladding, which creates a textural, craft-rich envelope (Hennessey worked closely with general contractor William Fisher's Hike Space for the desired result); and light oak surfaces inside, in storage and built in furniture.

The aim was for the design to emphasise 'clarity, proportion, and connection to the landscape', the architects explain. 'Carefully placed windows frame distant views from the living spaces and bedrooms, while new decks extend the home’s footprint outward. Sustainable upgrades, including photovoltaic panels, high-performance glazing, and permeable paving, ensure that the renovation strikes a balance between beauty and performance.'

Blending light, organic materials and a thoughtful approach to the structure's historical design, with Hilltop Residence, Michael Hennessey and his team produced a home that feels at once contemporary and timeless – and ready to take on the demands of family life.

hennesseyarchitect.com

Welcome to the debut of the long-awaited Rivian R2. The electric SUV specialist has announced the final specifications and production timings for its second core model, following on from the R1 SUV and pick-up launched back in 2021. The Rivian R2 was unveiled in 2024, alongside an even smaller and sportier R3 (yet to make it to production).

The key takeaway is that the R2 is smaller yet no less stuffed with function, clever packaging and Rivian’s signature looks. In the past 18 months, Rivian has doubled down on its design offering, with everything from the one-off Rivian R1S Quad Miami Edition to the limited series California Dune Edition R1 demonstrating that off-book colours, materials and trim are all very much part of the company’s experience from now onwards.

The R2 is a mid-size SUV (equating to a large SUV in European parlance). It sits on a new dedicated platform and has been shaped, styled and specified to reduce the overall price without diluting the Rivian experience. A top-line R1S can run to around $120,000, whereas the launch model R2 Performance retails at less than half that. The R2 Standard, when it arrives next year, will start at $45,000.

It’s certainly more than half the car. To the unfamiliar, the design language and proportions appear near identical, although the R2 is lower, shorter and lighter than the original R1S. The company’s founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, says that the new model ‘embodies so many of our learnings that we have accumulated’.

Range and performance are competitive, with the base model offering over 275 miles of range and the premium performance model should deliver up to 330miles, according to the company. That same model has 656hp and a 3.6 second sprint time, as well as unbeatable highway acceleration (an important metric in the American market, where the necessity of joining multiple lanes of fast-flowing, unyielding traffic requires punchy mid-range acceleration).

The R2 Performance Launch Package also comes with access to Tesla’s Supercharging network, as well as conventional charge ports, and has semi-active suspension. Inside, the full gamut of Rivian’s renewed emphasis on materials and function are on display.

This includes birch-wood trim accents, four heated seats, a 975W nine-speaker audio system, opening tailgate glass and other neat touches, like the flashlight contained in the driver’s door and integrated tow hooks.

The company’s much-praised HMI showcases the various drive modes (All-Purpose, Conserve, Snow, All-Terrain, Rally, Soft Sand, Sport and Launch), while onboard tech also includes a vehicle lifetime subscription to the Autonomy+ system. This Level 2+ hands-free driving experience is so far tuned to North America (and covers 3.5 million miles of roads across the US and Canada, according to Rivian).

Autonomy+ makes use of the R2’s ‘multi-model perception stack’, no less than 11 HDR cameras and five radar sensors. The system will continue to evolve through OTA updates; future improvements include the arrival of Rivian’s dedicated AI assistant.

Twin digital displays, including a central touchscreen, take charge of the vast majority of control systems, although the R2 also includes a new steering wheel with embedded haptic dials, called Halo Wheels. These bring context-aware controls to the R2 and are meant to bring a more analogue feel to the interface.

The R2 could just be the first Rivian model to make it over the Atlantic and tackle the European market, although there’s no official word on when and whether that’ll happen just yet. Still a sizeable machine by European standards, it nevertheless brings a fresh approach to design and technology that should mitigate the old school image of the SUV.

Rivian R2 Performance with Launch Package, from $57,990, Rivian.com, @RivianOfficial

This newly listed property in Thousand Oaks brings together two of the most influential figures in midcentury modern design: developer Joseph Eichler (1900-1974) and architect A Quincy Jones (1913-1979). Eichler is widely credited with bringing modernist architecture to middle-class America, commissioning forward-thinking architects to design homes that prioritised openness, light and a closer relationship with nature (check out another Eichler home, in Concord, California, which we explored last year). Among his most frequent collaborators was Jones, whose work helped shape the architectural language of post-war California through residential communities that balanced modernist principles with liveable, family-oriented layouts.

This home is a compelling example of that collaboration in practice. Built in 1964, it reflects the defining principles of Eichler’s architecture: post-and-beam construction, open-plan living areas, floor-to-ceiling glazing and a deliberate blurring of boundaries between interior and exterior.

The property sits within the Eichler-304 subdivision – also known as Lynn Estates or Conejo Village – a neighbourhood of approximately 102 homes that represents one of the final tracts of single-family Eichler houses ever built. While the community has never been formally landmarked, it is widely recognised by historians and preservationists as an important example of midcentury residential planning, offering a remarkably intact snapshot of the architectural optimism that defined California suburbia in the 1960s.

The house has recently undergone a careful reimagining. Originally designed as a five-bedroom model, the property was expanded in the 1960s and further refined by the current owners, who added approximately 800 sq ft. The layout has been reworked around two distinct wings connected by open central living spaces. In total, the home now offers 2,460 sq ft of living space, with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, set on a generous 13,068 sq ft lot – one of the largest in the development.

Crucially, the renovation has retained many of the architectural elements that define Eichler homes. The ceilings were hand-sanded to reveal the warm tones of the original redwood tongue-and-groove, a detail that underscores the craftsmanship of the period. Radiant heating embedded in the slab foundation – another signature Eichler feature – remains intact, preserving the building’s original construction logic.

Where contemporary updates have been introduced, they have been handled with restraint. Solid oak interior doors incorporate rain-glass detailing, while Venetian plaster adds texture to the fireplace and sections of the hallway. Handmade Porcelanosa Bottega tiles from Spain ground the interiors with a tactile finish. Sculptural lighting fixtures – many drawing inspiration from midcentury brutalist forms – were selected by the seller’s partner, a former associate designer to Kelly Wearstler (who guest edited Wallpaper* magazine in October 2022).

The kitchen acts as the social and visual centre of the home. Custom cabinetry is paired with Taj Mahal leathered quartz slabs, while a built-in espresso station and wine bar adds a luxurious touch.

Outdoors, the property extends the Eichler philosophy of indoor-outdoor living. A redwood pergola paired with Brazilian ipe-wood decking creates a shaded area, while the saltwater pool and spa have been fully renovated using Italian Stella Bianca marble. A fire pit and mature landscaping frame hillside views, and the garden includes more than 40 varieties of roses and fruit trees.

Through the combined vision of Eichler and Jones, homes like this redefined suburban architecture. This latest reworking respects that legacy while gently elevating it – proof that, when handled with care, midcentury modernism can feel as relevant today as it did six decades ago.

The Thousand Oaks property is listed for $2,395,000, ninakurtz.com

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

A mobile home in Malibu might not sound like much at first – but this is no ordinary trailer. Firstly, it’s set within Malibu Beach Trailer Park – once dubbed ‘America’s most glamorous trailer park’ by The New York Times. A trailer park in structure only, the enclave operates instead as an ultra-prime stretch of oceanfront real estate, favoured by wealthy homeowners and celebrities.

Secondly, the 1960s beach unit has undergone an extensive and impressive renovation by Alana Marie Interiors. The space was, by all accounts, ripe for reinvention. Cramped, dated and awkwardly configured, it inspired one former owner to admit that ‘anything would have been an improvement’. Today, that modest shell has been transformed into a multigenerational retreat that feels, says Alana Marie, ‘sophisticated, with a level of oceanfront comfort that would endure through generations.’

Marie looked outward for her cues. Walks along the shoreline contemplating the striations and hues of local stones inspired a palette that feels grounded and beachy, yet free of cliché or nostalgia.

The inspiration was also literal: stone anchors the scheme. Reclaimed bluestone tiles – varied in grain, softly tumbled at the edges and deeply pitted – run through the living room and hallway, their forgiving surface ideal for sandy feet while also offering visual counterpoint to solid oak ceilings above. In the primary bathroom, hand-chipped marble mosaics from Waterworks conjure a moody, spa-like intimacy, while a sculptural slab of marble elevates the outdoor shower. Timber, from the wire-brushed Thermo Radiata cladding to the oak overhead, introduces warmth and depth, while Roman Clay walls and robust, textural fabrics help create a layered, tactile interior.

The original 1,100 sq ft layout felt fragmented: a central kitchen, sealed-off bedrooms and a rear deck obstructed by a solarium and stairs. Marie reworked the plan to enhance storage, increase sleeping capacity and strengthen the connection between indoors and out. Along the ocean-facing wall, two expansive glass panels now pocket away entirely, dissolving the boundary between kitchen, living space and deck. Height restrictions ruled out a second storey, but strategic lofting provides additional sleeping quarters and storage.

Outside, the back deck extends the home’s ‘built-in’ feel, featuring a sunken lounge oriented squarely toward the horizon. Skylights and generous glazing draw in the soft Californian light, while the loft’s skylight offers a 360-degree panorama of rooftops and rolling surf.

The owners describe the evolution as a journey from ‘an eyesore into a luxury smart home’. Yet beyond its technological upgrades, the renovation succeeds in something less tangible: honouring the storied, bohemian legacy of Paradise Cove.

Recreate the mood...

Genesis' arrival in California is no surprise. The West Coast is still one of the global hearts of car culture, as evinced by the state’s impressive haul of major car design studios. As well as GM’s Advanced Design Center in Pasadena, BMW DesignWorks, and Toyota’s long-standing outpost in Newport Beach, CALTY Design Research, there are also major studios belonging to Honda, Nissan, Audi, and more.

Tour Genesis Design California in El Segundo

Last autumn, the South Korean maker joined the Golden State roster with the opening of Genesis Design California in El Segundo. What started out as an 80,000 sq ft industrial warehouse has been turned into a state-of-the-art design centre, complete with offices, a model shop, car storage and event space.

Designed by Californian firm Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC), the new space combines a low energy footprint with all the space, daylight and flexibility that a major studio needs.

One of the key activities at Genesis Design California is presentation; this is where design studies, concepts and new production variations are shown to stakeholders within the company and beyond. On site are no fewer than five turntables for 360-degree evaluation – these include outdoor locations for crucial scrutiny in the harsh Californian sun.

Genesis’ current ethos is ‘New Thinking, New Possibilities’, and the brand – which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group – is currently undergoing a rethink, with a clutch of new concepts, including the X Skorpio Concept, and the upcoming Magma performance sub-brand, designed to turn cars like the GV60 into cult high-performance EVs.

Design is very much a global, ongoing enterprise in the auto industry, with a network of studios allowing 24-hour operation. That’s certainly the case with Genesis. The 45 team members who now work in El Segundo join existing studios in Seoul and Frankfurt, spanning the globe with a seamless handover between time zones.

According to Luc Donckerwolke, Genesis’ chief creative officer, ‘design is brand and brand is design. Genesis Design California is the embodiment of this,’ he continues. ‘It embraces our distinctly Korean identity, creating a space that inspires creativity. I cannot wait to see that inspiration come to life in the team’s work.’

In addition to the active workspaces required for translating 3D models into physical ones, whether through 3D-printing, clay-modelling or a combination of the two, the new space includes a research library, private retreat spaces and outdoor gardens that fuse traditional Korean garden design and Californian planting. The brand’s heritage is also reflected in a traditional tea platform in the library space.

EYRC Architects was set up in 1979 and has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The 30-strong team has received over 200 awards, including 12 national awards from the American Institute of Architects.

For Genesis, the studio has fused its commercial experience with its portfolio of elegant private houses and hotels, creating a friendly domestic scale and ambience with undeniable industrial overtones.

EYRC.com

Genesis.com

Ever wondered what's at the heart of desert modernism? Perhaps, Frank Lloyd Wright defined it best:

'A desert building should be nobly simple in outline as the region itself is sculptured [...], the manmade building heightening the beauty of the desert and the desert more beautiful because of the building,' the modernist architecture master said in the May 1940 issue of Arizona Highways magazine.

Wright’s trenchant yet florid observations suggest the powerful urgency of desert architecture – combining shelter and openness, materials that stem from their land and modern forms, a highly tailored architecture rubbing shoulders with the raw power of nature.

What is desert modernism?

Any building for harsh, extreme environments must address harnessing climatic conditions in the service of human comfort. Earthen-based materials and indigenous building traditions come into play, revealing time-honoured ingenuity developed over millennia. Then, in the twentieth century, unadorned forms shaped by the broader sweep of modernism were responses to new tools and technical innovations that met the cultural moment then, and continue to do so today - impacting design in arid environments too.

Key characteristics of desert modernism

Desert modernism isn’t a monolith (and naturally, examples abound in many other countries), and yet hallmarks emerged from the architecture community's earliest experiments in the 1920s through the cities and suburbs that bloomed throughout the American Southwest in the mid-late 1940s through the 1960s. Designers and developers looked to readily available, industrially produced building components as well as earthen elements – sometimes culled from the site itself – that, when combined with skilful architectural moves, established templates for seamless indoor/outdoor living.

Roofs with generous eaves intended to provide shade were generally flat or gently sloped, given the general absence of rain. Hardscaping and plant choices reflected the surrounding native vegetation. Despite the advent of air conditioning, the most thoughtful iterations of this genre would continue to sensitively manage the realities of desert climates, such as harsh west-facing exposures, through passive measures in shading and ventilation - for example, using breeze-blocks.

Desert modernism in the US: a brief history

Up until the Second World War, the American Southwest’s deeply hybridised cultural and social milieu was largely evident in its formal and vernacular architecture. The romanticised Spanish Colonial Revival style borrowed references from Spain and neighbouring Mexico, with localised architectural dialects emerging throughout the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Pueblo Revival architecture and adobe structures mimicked Native American architectural heritage, particularly in New Mexico. From today’s perspective, however, such places can carry an allure of authenticity that in some cases might be more rooted in complicated myth than historical fact.

Certain zero-humidity hamlets sparsely populated by non-natives, notably Palm Springs, attracted those seeking relief from respiratory ailments. Nellie Coffman’s The Desert Inn in Palm Springs eventually grew from a tent-like sanitarium opened in 1909 to a 35-acre, gracious, full-service getaway popular with the Southern California glitterati. Resorts such as the Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.-designed Oasis Hotel and El Mirador Hotel followed. What had been a nascent wellness industry that valued seclusion and ample space planted the seeds of the town’s hospitality and leisure boom where modernism would thrive.

Early residential examples and proponents

Rudolph Schindler’s Popenoe Cabin, built in 1922 at the eastern edge of the Coachella Valley in Indio, California, is generally regarded as the first modern effort in the Southern California region that’s become most closely associated with the movement. The modest wood frame and concrete structure, which regretfully has been demolished, shares a generally overlapping timeframe and characteristics with the architect’s own radical home and studio in West Hollywood.

The desert became a muse to leading practitioners of the early and mid-twentieth century who ventured westward. Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Goff, Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, and John Lautner were emigres or Midwestern transplants who embraced experimentation in uninterrupted spatial expanse. In 1937, Grace Lewis Miller commissioned Neutra for a winter home and studio to support her Mensendieck System of Functional Exercises teaching practice. The compact structure sat lightly on the land, complete with a reflecting pool that touched what was then an unsullied Sonoran Desert vista.

Nearly a decade later, the more ambitious Edgar J. Kaufmann House by Neutra rose from its large, sandy lot. Its interplay of flat roofs, a second-level open 'gloriette,' floor-to-ceiling plate glass, sandstone, crimped sheet-metal fascia, and seductive poolside outdoor lounge was built for the Pittsburgh department store magnate who had famously commissioned Fallingwater from Wright. Julius Shulman’s 1947 photograph and Slim Aarons’ evocative 'Poolside Gossip' image taken in 1970 helped broadcast the home and modern desert lifestyle to the world. This language proved adaptable to being both practical and deluxe.

Architects John Porter Clark and Le Corbusier disciple Albert Frey committed themselves to an intensive consideration of how to design and build for the desert when, in 1935, they established their business partnership that for nearly two decades shaped the Palm Springs area.

Prolific practitioners such as E. Stewart Williams, William E. Cody, Donald Wexler, William Krisel, and Dan Palmer continued to experiment with low-slung residences –often with open plans and always with a strong indoor-outdoor connection - at various price points – in the Coachella Valley, using a palette of concrete, steel, and glass.

Aspirational prototypes evolved into replicable models at a larger scale. The 1950s saw the growth of suburban tract developments in settings with inexpensive land that promised the winter-chill-free good life, complete with the latest in technological creature comforts, such as air-conditioning. An ethos that advanced modernism’s democratic leanings was embedded in the residential and commercial work of architects such as Al Beadle and Ralph Haver in Phoenix, Arizona, and throughout the built environment of that ultimate human playground: Las Vegas.

Planned neighbourhoods dotted with post-and-beam dwellings, including Marlen Grove in Phoenix (1952), Paradise Palms in Las Vegas (1960), and the Alexander Construction Co.’s multiple communities in the Coachella Valley, offered accessible templates of conventional American family life rather than a taste of the architectural avant-garde (more, relatively luxurious developments were centred around golfing and cocktail-abetted socialising). Details such as butterfly roofs and folded plates conveyed post-war optimism, and elements, including concrete brise soleil or breeze blocks, added pattern, depth, and playfulness.

The case of the desert utopias

Seekers in search of spiritual enlightenment and higher purpose - architects included, either directly for their own pursuits or in the service of clients - have also found themselves in the great arid vastness. Frank Lloyd Wright passed on the opportunity to design the Institute of Mentalphysics for Rev. Edwin John Dingle, known as Ding Le Mei, on a sprawling site near Joshua Tree Park acquired in 1941. Instead, his son, the aforementioned Lloyd Wright, accepted the task of creating multiple buildings on the still-extant (yet not completed as originally envisioned) colony, incorporating rocks and materials from the land itself and principles of sacred geometry to support the organisation’s mission.

'Organic architecture is distinguished from the facade-making which passes for modern architecture today, as you can see in our home, Taliesin West,' Frank Lloyd Wright wrote in 1953 about the learn-by-doing, apprentice-powered campus he began in 1937 that brought his Taliesin Fellowship from Wisconsin to Scottsdale, Arizona. Wright and team then kept busy in the desert. The concrete block 1950 David and Gladys Wright House, built for his son and daughter-in-law, featured a spiralling ramp that was a subtle preview of the Guggenheim Museum, and the dramatic ASU Gammage auditorium debuted in 1964.

Taliesin West lured an ambitious Italian architect, Paolo Soleri, who in 1970 created his Arcosanti 'arcology' laboratory (a portmanteau for 'architecture' and 'ecology') in Mayer, Arizona. The otherworldly compound remains a preferred off-duty working vacation for architects who participate in the sustainable community’s hands-on workshops (it should be said that Soleri’s daughter accused him of sexual abuse).

Desert modernism's commercial appeal

Modernist aesthetics and twentieth-century capitalism were compatible endeavours, with overlapping interests of efficiency and scale. Automobile-centric retail and commercial strips like Tucson’s Sunshine Mile emerged with ample parking and attention-grabbing neon signage to boot.

Despite the general inclination towards minimal ornamentation, designers distinguished work in inventive ways. Rudi Baumfeld of Victor Gruen and Associates seized the opportunity for expressive flourishes with the swooping roof line that’s a nod to Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp, France, at the blue mosaic tile-clad 1959 City National Bank (now a Bank of America branch) on South Palm Canyon Drive.

The future of desert modernism

Architects and builders have amassed enough information at this point in history to design boldly, beautifully, and carefully. Even if desert denizens are used to scorching temperatures and parched surfaces, rising global temperatures, increasingly fragile ecosystems, and threatened plant and animal species require a heightened sensitivity to environmental impacts and effective heat mitigation moves.

Architects, including Cade Hayes and Jesús Edmundo Robles, Jr. of D U S T, Lake Flato, Jorge Gracia, Benjamin Hall, Marmol Radziner, Sean Lockyer, and Lance O’Donnell - among several others - demonstrate how continually evolving contemporary design sensibilities that value context while embracing both proven ancient and innovative construction methods can yield transcendently beautiful outcomes.

11 key examples of desert modernism

Taliesin West

Who: Frank Lloyd Wright (1937-)

Where: Scottsdale, Arizona

Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, workshop, and architecture school has been the site of astounding creativity (and scandal-making drama) since he broke ground and the Fellowship began its work in 1937.

The Institute of Mentalphysics/Joshua Tree Retreat Center

Who: Lloyd Wright (1940s)

Where: Yucca Valley, California

Perhaps no place other than the Institute of Mentalphysics (or the Joshua Tree Retreat Center) better exemplifies California’s history of movements tied to alternative spirituality, what we now call health and wellness, self-reinvention, and the architecture that supported it. The 1940s campus, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the largest concentration of buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr., AKA Lloyd Wright, and features structures by other architects such as Harold Zook.

Lautner Compound

Who: John Lautner (1947)

Where: Desert Hot Springs, California

John Lautner’s complex composed of four contiguous yet internally differentiated units is now available for overnight stays and special events. Lautner’s work eventually became more ambitious with clients who had grander visions and bigger bank accounts. Look no further than the concrete and glass wizardly at the Arthur Elrod House, built in 1968 for Palm Springs’ most famous interior decorator and featured in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, and the Bob and Dolores Hope House from the late 1970s.

Racquet Club Estates

Who: Palmer & Krisel, Donald Wexler et al. for the Alexander Construction Co. (1960s)

Where: Palm Springs, California

Planned communities like Racquet Club Estates developed by the Alexander Construction Co. represented midcentury aspirations of modern American lifestyles and middle-class leisure.

Frey House II

Who: Albert Frey (1964)

Where: Palm Springs, California

A few decades into his career, Swiss-born Albert Frey confidently used his signature gestures and materials to fashion a home nestled among the boulders and rock outcroppings on a perch above Palm Springs.

Arcosanti

Who: Paolo Soleri (1970-)

Where: Mayer, Arizona

Experimental and experiential living and learning continue at Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti.

Jacobson House (1975-77)

Who: Judith Chafee

Where: Tucson, Arizona

Judith Chafee returned to her native Tucson after graduating as the sole woman in her Yale School of Architecture class in 1960, and working in the studios of Paul Rudolph, Edward Larabee Barnes, and Eero Saarinen. Far from her profession’s geographic power and prestige base in the Northeast, she synthesised local precedents with her formal training steeped in post-war theory and practice. The result? Singular interpretations of Southwestern residential modernism over the course of Chafee’s under-heralded career.

La Luz del Oeste

Who: Antoine Predock (1967)

Where: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Despite or perhaps because of Antoine Predock’s inclination to engage with polemics related to his region, the Albuquerque-based architect literally designed the 1994 Disney version of a Santa Fe-inspired hotel for the Paris park. The multifamily La Luz del Oeste community reiterates how and why the desert is conducive to questions of context-appropriateness and stylistic idiosyncrasies that resist easy categorisation.

Amangiri

Who: Marwan Al-Sayed/Masastudio, Wendell Burnette and Rick Joy (2009)

Where: Canyon Point, Utah

Desert brutalism arises like an ancient monument from red earth, and here, also, as a coveted ultra-luxury resort in remote southern Utah.

Tucson Mountain Retreat

Who: D U S T Architects (2012)

Where: Tucson, AZ

Tucson-based D U S T Architects homes are meditation and poetry in built form, often constructed out of rammed earth and using hand-built techniques that sit in harmony with sites in Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas.

Marfa Ranch

Who: Lake Flato (2021)

Where: Marfa, Texas

Lake Flato deftly integrates the colour and material palette of the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert into this house using rammed earth situated on the vast West Texas prairie.

IT House

Who: Taalman Architecture (2008)

Where: Joshua Tree, California

A prototype of off-grid living, IT House was designed by Taalman Architecture studio in the early 2000s to be modular and prefabricated, addressing issues around sustainability and environmental impact.

Secluded along the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and surrounded by old-growth woodlands in a rolling valley of greens and gold, Portola Valley, California is a community nothing less than idyllic. It’s also the setting for a thoughtfully conceived architectural gesture of ultimate liberation.

When Megumi Aihara and Dan Spiegel, cofounders of award-winning San Francisco-based cross-disciplinary design firm Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), were approached by their friends and clients Aruna and Sanjiv Gambhir to design a new home, they knew it would be one of their most meaningful and ambitious collaborations.

Following the loss of their teenage son, Milan, to cancer in 2015, the Gambhirs were intent on having a space for reflection and a new beginning. 'It was an interesting exercise in what it means to honor a memory and build upon what he contributed to their lives,' Spiegel explains. 'But also, how to just manage their own lives going forward.'

The site they found was a breathtaking three-acre plot of land on a bluff with views stretching all the way to San Francisco on a clear day. And what they envisioned—a retreat consisting of a 7,800 sq ft, four-bedroom, three-bathroom main house and 1,200 sq ft two-bedroom guest cottage integrated within the sloping site—would be, literally, transcendental.

But during the years-long permitting and approval processes, Sanjiv – a pioneer in molecular imaging and a professor in cancer research at the nearby Stanford School of Medicine – also passed away from cancer. Aruna, however, decided to press on with the project. 'She wanted to see the project through for him,' shares Spiegel. 'He was passionate about design and Aruna now wanted to honour both Sanjiv and her son.'

Seeing the project as a continuation of her family’s story, Aruna suggested naming it Moksha – a Buddhist concept that refers to a release from the unbound cycle of life and death, offering a reflection of the home’s spiritual origin. It was a sentiment echoed from the very beginning. 'Every decision we were making was about a kind of rebirth or renewal,' adds Aihara. 'There was the repurposing of redwood trees that were fell from fires and landslides, and the use of other materials that would change over time.'

Salvaged old-growth redwood used for siding and rainscreens soften the board-formed concrete walls that make up the main dwelling’s ground floor that. The second cantilevered level is also clad in the same reclaimed wood that will silver with time to reveal a lustrous sheen. Inside, custom-milled, salvaged blue-gum eucalyptus flooring adds warmth and durability, while walls of windows allow sunlight to stretch throughout the home from multiple angles all day long.

'The twisting of that cantilever was positioned for the views, but also to provide shade and relief from the sun,' says Spiegel. 'We wanted it to be animated by the amazing lighting conditions across different times of day.'

One of the challenges faced by the architects was how the home’s eventual inhabitants would feel the 'bigness of the world beneath them' while not feeling too exposed. To that end, they created introverted areas that offer a sense of coziness and solitude, like with the pool deck. 'As you swim toward one end you can see the San Francisco skyline on your left and, straight ahead, you’re overlooking the Stanford campus and all the way across the East Bay to Mount Diablo,' Spiegel notes. 'But as you swim toward the other end, you’re deeply enclosed in a sort of private shell.'

Similarly, a nearby breakfast nook offers a quiet spot to enjoy the morning sun before taking a dip. Another such area, visible only from windows in the primary suite and a connected sauna, is a contemplative garden courtyard enclosed by redwood siding reclaimed from the house that previously stood on the site. 'You can look way out over vineyards on the neighbouring hillside,” Aihara says.

It’s in these meditative nooks nestled amongst majestic Valley Oak trees, vines, and native grasses – and the seemingly endless vistas – that SAW’s clients hoped to envisage their future together. But sadly, Aruna never saw the home to completion – she died just a few months before the homes completion, five years after her husband.

The house today represents something else – the potential of creativity and compassion; the home was completed and sold last year, with the proceeds funding endowed professorships for cancer research at both UCLA and Stanford in the name of the Gambhirs' son). 'A young tech entrepreneur who’d been a student at Stanford bought it,' Spiegel says. 'He didn’t know the backstory [at the time] – aside from the charitable purpose of the sale – and loved the design, as well as the fact his money would go to the endowments.'

'In some ways it was one of the most exciting projects we’ve worked on and, in many ways, the most difficult,' he reflects. 'It challenged our thinking about the nature of what we do, why and for whom – and what it means to make something in the world.'

Tour the rest of this spectacular house

American architect John Lautner designed over 200 architecture projects during his career, which began in the 1930s with an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright. He then started his own firm in Los Angeles in 1938.

Most of John Lautner's work was realised in California, including the development of his famous Googie-style coffee shops in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Garcia House, and perhaps, his most famous home, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the hills of Los Angeles. It is also in LA that local firm Conner + Perry Architects was recently tasked to restore and remodel one of the late architect’s masterpieces from the early 1980s, ‘Lautner's Castle’.

Step inside Lautner’s Castle with us

Positioned along the topography of a steep hillside, the home features an array of cylindrical stone turrets along the south face. These are both structural and architectural, illustrating Lautner's philosophy, which emphasises natural materials, blending stone, steel, glass, and wood, and a harmonious relationship with the landscape.

With extensive experience working on Lautner properties, including the Sheats-Goldstein residence, Conner + Perry Architects started on the Lautner's Castle restoration project in 2019. Principals Kristopher Conner and James Perry were entrusted to make modern enhancements that would not disturb the original modernist architecture, while also meeting the needs of a 21st-century family lifestyle.

The home unfolds with a wide curving hallway and a ribbed wooden ceiling that spans the entire upper floor. Just outside the front-facing windows, copper elements on top of the beams replaced the white painted metal that will age more congruently with the house.

In the living area, a dramatic linear LED wood structure of single-ply wood-veneer fins hangs from the ceiling over the dining table, theatrically illuminating the exposed timber ceilings. ‘I conceived of it as a dragon for Lautner's Castle,’ says Conner. ‘The house has a nautical feel. The roof structure, to me, feels like the hull of a ship turned upside down. We actually replaced the entire roof, so when we ripped it off, you could really see the details. This thing was built like a ship with these diagonal boards, creating a unitised structure.’

The team also brought in chrome eyeball lights to enhance a sense of direction in the entryway. These cast a light on the Douglas fir wood panels, which were completely stripped and refinished in the majority of the house.

In the living room, a custom cream sofa designed by the architects morphs from a daybed to a formal sitting area. Its supports were made with glulam Douglas fir (same as the house beams), and the integrated table at its heart is fabricated from solid slabs, taking inspiration from the house, its materials and geometries.

One of the most fascinating architectural features is that each of the cylindrical stone columns hosts a programmatic element. One in the living room contains a functioning wet bar, while the kitchen one is a built-in pantry. These pillars also help frame the city and canyon views that unfold beyond the exterior balcony that runs the length of the property; and you might just spot a herd of deer sauntering around the hillside.

‘What’s interesting about this house,’ says Conner, ‘is that in most of Lautner's houses, where there's a view, the architecture really opens up to the view in a very dramatic way. But here, I think there is much more of an interior focus on the house. The skyline views get framed in these spaces between the stone [cylinders]. The drama is the two terraced balconies. He takes those lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright about compression and expansion, and increasing the drama.’

Expansive windows offer natural light and frame the lush green surroundings. The skilful use of warm woods and stone flooring continues to the exterior (where it was refurbished), further blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors, in the spirit of Lautner’s philosophy and approach.

The kitchen was actually renovated by Conner and Perry’s previous mentor, and a Lautner associate, Duncan Nicholson, around 2013, so this area stayed pretty much true to the original, including the island constructed out of a stone slab with an edged treatment.

There was no hood for the [stove] range, but the architectural duo added discreet slots in the ceiling and a commercial vent fan on the roof. ‘This is telling of our approach to the restoration of the house; everything was, where possible, just a minimal intervention, trying to preserve the architecture as much as [we could],’ says Conner.

On the first-floor interior, among a host of interventions by Conner and Perry, the library transitions into a media room (featuring a hidden state-of-the-art A/V system, a projection screen and integrated audio), a custom-built-in sofa, and shelving that supports the room's functionality. The chevron wood flooring was replaced ‘like for like’ according to Conner.

In the primary suite, the original sunken tatami mats were replaced with a custom platform bed with integrated nightstands, and wall sconces that blend into the vertical-grain wall panelling with Lutron lighting. In addition, an original small office off the hallway was converted into a second walk-in closet featuring a rotating clothes rack.


The bathtub in the primary bathroom with its canyon view was completely revamped, replacing an old fibreglass jacuzzi with a new custom Corian soaking tub, a hardwood tub deck and hardware from Vola, along with a privacy shade.

A water closet, adjacent to the already showstopping stone-cylinder primary shower with its dramatic circular skylight that frames the clouds, was refurbished and a new skylight was added. At the vanity corner, a custom-carved double-bowled vessel sink was installed after it was carved out of a boulder by Stoneland, USA, in the valley. Its rare size meant it took a year to procure.

Throughout the home, the original bathroom tiles were maintained, including in the powder rooms, where skylights were added. Here, lighted fixtures were updated to modern LEDs that are colour-adapting, so you can simulate different types of daylight. A dedicated make-up station was added to the primary bathroom area.

A restored spiral staircase is covered in an updated version of the original Italian red wool carpet and leads down a lower level where three more bedrooms and a bonus guest-game room are. The original second-level bedrooms were lacking in light, so Conner and Perry transformed the old guest bedroom by placing larger windows in the corner looking out onto the surrounding garden and incorporating intricate millwork, such as the built-in headboard with drawers, floating shelves, and a wardrobe.

‘We expanded this window all the way down to the floor, so you could see so much lush greenery, and then the views,’ says Conner. Outside this guest room is a hybrid piece of furniture serving as both a deck and a bench. ‘It's really just about creating that intimate relationship with the garden here.’

A jack-and-jill set of two bedrooms and a bathroom is now joined by the game-guest room. Frosted glass doors bring in more natural light. The original concrete floors were redone with concrete micro-topping product in keeping with the Lautner philosophy of trying to blur inside and outside in a cohesive manner.

On the exterior, Conner and Perry extended the architecture into the landscape, providing little pockets or vignettes to spend more quality time outside, including a dining table and concrete bench, an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue grill. An old storage closet was converted into a cabana bathroom with a nearby outdoor shower.

Working with the pool’s original structural engineering, the noted Lautner collaborator Andrew Nasser, Conner and Perry carved out an expansive deck beneath the pool – an area that was previously inaccessible. This becomes a third level for the home, cantilevering out of the hillside. Here, you will find a wooden infinity deck featuring a stone fire pit, a long built-in concrete bench, and custom lounge chairs by Conner + Perry Architects. ‘All of this used to be a barren dirt hillside,’ adds Conner.

Providing both shelter and dramatic canyon views, the space offers a unique perspective of the underside of Lautner's bold cantilevering structure. ‘We were very careful not to have a guard rail. We added these planters and this little hiking trail that loops back around the property.’

The exterior landscaping outside was previously sparse. It is now lush with a cactus garden at the front and a hillside at the rear. The latter splits off into walkways flanked by a mix of native plants and a pop of Bougainvillaea for colour. ‘We've spent years developing this. Now, there are almost these little microclimates and a fern grove where it's shady,’ says Conner.

In the end, one of the biggest challenges for the architects was navigating the generous landscape element in this project without detracting from the original architecture. As in all of Lautner’s most significant works, a key concern was the relationships between human being and space, space and nature, and that enduring ethos has been well preserved at Lautner's Castle.

conner-perry.com

Nearly two decades ago, Wallpaper* correspondent Paul McCann and photographer Laura Wilson took a tour of the Kappe House in Pacific Palisades, along with another of the architect’s projects, the 1972 home and office of psychotherapist Dr Esther Benton in Brentwood.

Kappe, who died in 2019 at the age of 92, co-founded the Southern California Institute of Architecture (better known as SCI-Arc) with the architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

A pioneering architectural educator as well as a practising architect, many of his houses have featured in films and TV shows over the decades, helping shape the public perception of Californian modernism (the Benton house featured in Californication, One Hour Photo, Cruel Intentions, among others).

Kappe’s wife, Shelly, died in early 2025 at the age of 96. A prominent architectural historian and academic, Shelly Kappe used her role as a writer and curator to showcase some of the key players in modern LA’s architectural history.

Of all the architect's projects – including the Triesch Residence near Berlin – Kappe's own residence is perhaps his most famous. Designated a Cultural Historical Monument all the way back in 1996, the LA Times once called it ‘The Greatest house in Southern California’, and it's easy to see why the architectural legacy of this particular project has been so enduring.

Set on a sloping site in Rustic Canyon, the Kappe House is arranged over no less than seven levels and covers some 4,157 square feet. Kappe’s spatial genius is in evidence from the get go, with steps leading up from the road, threading past mature trees to the front door, set beneath a cantilevered canopy – which doubles up as a balcony for the floor above.

Formed from vertical concrete supports criss-crossed with vast redwood beams, the house is a true interlocking puzzle. The entrance level houses Kappe's glass-walled office, reached by a bridge above the carport.

From here, stairs lead up another level to the centrepiece, a double-height living room flanked by a raised den on one side and the kitchen on the other, each overlooking the sunken living space in the middle, furnished with distinctive blue seating in the house’s heyday.

A multiplicity of views up, down and across are available from this one space, with low level voids, vast frameless glazed and high-level clerestory windows maximising the interplay between the beams and the walls.

Rich detailing abounds, from the built-in kitchen with its timber worktops, exposed concrete walls and terracotta flooring, and the primary bedroom, with its sunken fireplace, desk and recliner, flanked by views out to the canyon vegetation beyond. Natural planting is offset by rock gardens, as well as a lap pool with spa, sauna and cabana.

The house has five bathrooms and another four bedrooms, with walkways that take a vertiginous path across the sloping site as well as huge windows that are filled with a view of abundant greenery.

The main suite occupies the house’s northeast wing, with a further collection of three bedrooms in the more private south-east wing. Throughout the house, much of the furniture is built-in, custom-designed by Kappe himself.

As luck would have it, the realtor in charge of the sale, luxury estate and architecture specialist Ian L.Brooks, had the pleasure of assisting the late, great Julius Shulman when he shot several homes for Wallpaper* back at the turn of the century. Now Brooks has come full circle, offering this spectacular home to the market for the first time since it was built.

Priced at $11.5m, Brooks tells us that ‘we went into multiple offers within three days of being on market... [The house] a work that is disciplined and deliberate, yet seemingly free and effortless, where traditional spatial boundaries are erased,’ he enthuses, ‘it’s been described as a work of art that is both essay and poem.’

For once, the realtor hyperbole is justified, and Brooks’ contention that the Kappe House delivers a ‘continuous symphony of direct and indirect dappled light that animates the house from sunrise to sunset’ is no exaggeration. The Kappe House awaits its new custodian.

The Kappe House is being sold by Ian L.Brooks, Berkshire Hathaway Santa Monica, IanBrooksEstatesGroup.com, @Sir.IanLBrooks, DesignerEstates.com

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

Built in 1925 for James Eads How, the How House is one of Rudolph M Schindler’s most significant early works, now a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The 2,400 sq ft residence exemplifies the architect’s pioneering approach to California modernism. When it changed hands nearly a century after its construction, interior designer Taska Cleveland undertook a careful revitalisation. ‘I focused on interventions that support contemporary life while protecting the integrity of Schindler’s architecture, allowing the house to evolve naturally without losing its original spirit,’ the designer told Wallpaper*. ‘Modern comfort was integrated quietly, allowing the original design to remain clear, legible and fully experienced.’

Step inside a replenished modernist icon

First, original redwood-panelled ceilings, walls, windows and doors were sanded to remove layers of stain, revealing the natural warmth of the wood. Concrete floors were restored and given a red hue inspired by architect John Lautner, reinforcing the house’s modernist lineage.

Cleveland furnished the home to create spaces that invite rest and contemplation – encouraging guests to recline and look upward at Schindler’s rhythmic interplay of wood, glass and concrete. Rather than merely replicating his modernist language, however, she asserted her own authorship, weaving together craftsmanship from different eras and cultures. The entryway sets the tone with a George Nakashima ottoman and a walnut floating console by Madera Build, topped with Japanese stoneware by Michio Koinuma and a Carl-Harry Stålhane dish. In the living room, a built-in sofa upholstered in BDDW green mohair sits beneath an Arien Valizadeh painting. Custom brown velvet lounge chairs face an angora goatskin rug and a bronze-and-zinc coffee table by Marcin Rusak, and a Hans Wegner chair pairs with a Mira Nakashima side table, reinforcing the dialogue between old and new.

A concrete double-sided fireplace connects the living and dining rooms, maintaining Schindler’s emphasis on spatial flow. Custom cherry wood built-in benches nestle beneath mitered glass windows, topped with sculptural objects including a Nepalese resho paper lamp by North Vernon and ceramics by Rando Aso. Above the living room, a mezzanine overlooks the treetops, and Loro Piana linen cushions echo the tones of the surrounding eucalyptus.

In the den, plaster walls inspired by Eric Lloyd Wright’s Anaïs Nin/Rupert Pole house complement the redwood and rust-coloured drapery. Furnishings include a nubuck leather sofa by Soot, a reupholstered Gerrit Rietveld chair and an angular coffee table by Pali Xisto Cornelsen. A custom brass wet bar and cherry wood storage, carefully scribed around the cement fireplace, add functionality while respecting the architecture.

The dining area features vintage Sergio Rodrigues chairs in brown suede surrounding a Joaquim Tenreiro table atop a Tuareg rug. A Jonathan Wateridge painting hangs above a custom wenge and slate console displaying an Arne Bang lamp and a Keita Matsunaga ceramic. In the kitchen, updates include cherry and painted cabinetry with Schindler-style pulls, lava stone countertops and a reflective stainless steel backsplash.

Upstairs and on the lower level, intimate spaces continue the material dialogue. The primary bedroom features bronze mirror panels, vintage Giuseppe Ostuni sconces and a Paul László-inspired bed. A cantilevered desk with Schindler-style detailing forms a study area furnished with a Pierre Jeanneret chair, while the renovated bath includes a monolithic limestone tub and sink.

Guest rooms and baths are home to custom cherry beds, vintage sconces, limestone sinks and plaster walls. Carefully placed artworks and sculptural objects, including pieces from artist Kwangho Lee and Los Angeles gallery Thornton, extend the architectural language into intimate corners.

Through meticulous restoration and sensitive additions, Cleveland ensures that the How House remains both historically significant and vibrantly contemporary. 'I see myself as a collaborator [with Schindler] across time,' she says. 'Preservation is essential, but without interpretation it can become static. My role was to translate his ideas into the present, honouring his experimental spirit rather than freezing it.'

As Palm Springs Modernism Week 2026 approaches and the city prepares to throw itself into the West Coast's biggest celebration of midcentury architecture, tickets are being booked, and programmes are being browsed in an effort to secure a spot at many of the festival's coveted annual events. At the same time, the desert city's modernist architecture marvels are there year-round – albeit many might not be available to visit outside the Modernism Week's activities.

Photographer Trey Burnette captures Palm Springs at night

Enter, local photographer Trey Burnette, whose admiration for all things 20th century – and all things Palm Springs – led him to capture his home city in a unique way; photographing its midcentury offerings at night. Ahead of the Palm Springs Modernism Week 2026 launch, we caught up with him and let him take us on a journey through the city, after dusk.

Palm Springs at night with Trey Burnette

Wallpaper*: Why Palm Springs?

Trey Burnette: Fate, I guess. My mother’s family settled in the deserts of western Texas and eastern New Mexico in the 1800s. My mother was born in Los Angeles, but shortly after her birth, my grandmother and her daughters returned to New Mexico. I was born in Memphis, but I spent much of my early childhood in the Arizona desert after my mother escaped my father’s abuse. The desert was always a place of healing for my family.

Eight years ago, I was living in Los Angeles and hit a point when I needed to take all of my experiences and lessons and reset my life. I had a therapist who noticed that all my survivals and accomplishments had been done with force and that it was time I let things happen with ease. Palm Springs seemed easy. Shortly before my mom died on my sixteenth birthday, we had considered moving here from nearby Riverside, and I had spent a lot of time here as an adult. I loved the architecture, landscape, and energy, so the move seemed natural.

W*: Why shoot during the night?

TB: The light in Palm Springs is beautiful, but I think a lot of people forget that the night is a variation of that beauty. Palm Springs has a dark-sky policy that keeps light pollution to a minimum. The stars, moon, mountains, trees, and minimal man-made light give Palm Springs a special texture and depth at night. I think the illumination of the classic modernist lines of the architecture against that texture and depth is quite striking. Most architectural photography is done in daylight; people forget that the architecture also lives at night. The shadows and contrast of illumination and darkness give the lines and form of structures a distinct and enhanced quality not seen in the sun.

I have always found beauty in dark places; I did this innately as a child in some of my scariest moments. Finding a light in the dark is a way to acknowledge a greater, more glorious truth beyond any current unpleasant circumstance. Dark places serve as a place to find our brightness.

W*: Talk to me about how you selected your subjects.

TB: There are many iconic structures in Palm Springs, but there are also many lesser-known but equally important examples of mid-century architecture here. I wanted to look at the icons in a new way and bring some visibility to underappreciated works. I had an idea of subjects I wanted to photograph, but when an unplanned structure caught my eye, I parked my car, got out, and took the shot. Finding illuminated structures that were framed by the night and uncluttered was key to a shot.

W*: Do you think modernist architecture has a specific appeal to photographers?

TB: I do not know; I know my own tastes tend to favour modernist and contemporary architecture and design. However, for me, I find it more compelling to put my tastes aside and look at all architecture and art with curiosity. I like to understand what an architect, artist, and movement were trying to achieve during that period. I think that approach lends itself to not only appreciating the design, as well as giving insight into the culture and technology of the time. The more I understand a subject, the more I can put my voice into a photo.

I recently travelled to Barcelona a couple of times and toured most of Antoni Gaudí’s landmark works, examples of Catalan modernism. On the surface, his work is very different from the modernism in Palm Springs, but when one understands the driving forces behind the designs (the use of new technologies, incorporating natural light, and addressing modern living), one sees the underlying relationships and principles for great design. This is why I look to the great photographers for inspiration, what fundamentals made their work innovative and keep their work relevant.

W*: Tell me more about your methods and way of working. Do you shoot on film?

TB: I tend to let my intuition lead when I create. Most of my work has been done or initiated when I have been out exploring the world and am captivated by something beautiful, striking, or unsettling—maybe all three.

I did my first photo series of a night out on the Sunset Strip in high school with a disposable camera. It was a storytelling project, and my English teacher said I had something, but I didn’t want to believe I had that talent, so I went on my way. When iPhones and Instagram came along, I started getting requests to use my photos of places I had visited. I finally bought a proper camera, a Leica V-lux 5, and started shooting with more intention. My work started getting published, and in 2024, I got an honourable mention in my first show with the Los Angeles Center of Photography. I wanted to improve, so I did a photo review. The pros told me I had a natural eye but needed to work on my processing skills. I took some classes taught by Josh Withers and Rollence Patugan at LACP. I love education and know there is always something to learn.

My work has been digital, but I am taking Barbara Boissevain’s dark room class, so I am now also shooting on film. I recently took Eric Joseph’s printing class and learned how much different types of paper affect photos. I finally bought strobe lighting and have been doing studio work. All are fascinating processes.

W*: Is there anything specific on the technical side that is special about this particular project?

TB: An understanding of the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO was imperative for getting the best shots for this series. But I think the biggest lessons with this project were practising patience and having a willingness to keep on when things weren’t working.

W*: How long did it take you to capture the series? How many buildings does it include in total?

TB: I went out on four nights close to midnight for about four or five hours. Then I did one shorter night to shoot a structure I missed. In the end, there are twenty-three structures in the series.

W*: The Palm Springs Modernism Week is coming up. Do you have your eye on any specific events?

TB: I recently finished writing a comedic novel and TV series set in Palm Springs about a photographer living in a Paul R. Williams building, so I am definitely seeing Designing the Desert, and Other Landscapes: The Architecture of Paul R. Williams. I will also see Googie, a few other documentaries, take a tour I haven’t done, and check out the Modernism Art District Tour. I recommend taking a bus tour for first timers; they give an informational overview of everything one might want to see.

Your Palm Springs Modernism Week 2026 itinerary

Newcomers Reception at CAMP

First time in Palm Springs during the festival, and unsure what to choose to visit? This event, which mixes newcomers with seasoned visitors and locals, aims to answer all the questions a Palm Springs Modernism Week novice might have.

When: 12 February 2026, 02:00 PM
Where: CAMP, Hyatt Palm Springs

Keynote Presentation: Elizabeth Diller, Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Keynote presenter for this year's Modernism Week, renowned architect and co-founder Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will be talking about her work in a dedicated, one-off event during the festival.

When: 14 February 2026, 12:59 PM to 03:30 PM
Where: Annenberg Theater, Palm Springs Art Museum

The Charles & Ray Eames Foundation: Preserving Legacy, Inspiring the Future

In a special talk, Eames Demetrios (grandson of Charles and Ray Eames and chairman of the board of the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation) and Adrienne Luce, the foundation's executive director, will be taking the conversation around modernism to LA, discussing the Eames' lasting influence in the field.

When: 18 February 2026, 09:00 AM
Where: Annenberg Theater, Palm Springs Art Museum

2026 World Monuments Fund / Knoll Modernism Prize Ceremony

Celebrate one of the world's biggest honours in modernist design and attend the 2026 World Monuments Fund / Knoll Modernism Prize Ceremony, taking place this year at Palm Springs during the festival - and learn all about this year's winner, the Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

When: 18 February 2026
Where: Annenberg Theater, Palm Springs Art Museum

Palm Springs Modernism Week runs 12-22 February 2026

modernismweek.com

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A Californian community

Set within California’s Sea Ranch community, The House of Four Ecologies is a coastal retreat designed by a group of architect friends. Led by James Leng alongside Natasha Sadikin, Juney Lee and Hoang Nguyen, the 1,600 sq ft home is conceived as four distinct volumes nestled into a riparian corridor of firs, grasses and shrubs. Each space is oriented to a different ecological condition, creating varied relationships to ocean, garden, meadow and forest. Inside, rooms unfold as experiential moments: the Ocean Room frames the Pacific through a single large window; the Garden Room blurs interior and exterior with sliding walls and a courtyard; the kitchen and dining area forms the social heart; and an ensuite studio overlooks the meadow beyond.

A sunken garden home

Designed by architect couple Deborah Saunt and David Hills of DSDHA, Covert House is a discreet yet radical response to London’s housing constraints. Tucked behind Clapham Old Town’s historic terraces, the house is invisible from the street, sinking partly below ground. Built on a speculative backland site, the project became both a family home and a testing ground for the architects’ broader ideas about urban living. Cast concrete defines the structure, alternating between raw and refined finishes, while large skylights and glazed façades flood the interior with daylight. The inverted layout places living spaces above and bedrooms below,. Reading a bit like a pavilion set within greenery, the house demonstrates how dense cities can accommodate inventive, sustainable architecture.

A Tbilisi apartment

In a historic art nouveau building in Tbilisi’s Sololaki district, designers Nino Nozadze and Eka Papamichail have reimagined an apartment for Georgian chef Tekuna Gachechiladze. Original parquet floors, tall ceilings and double doors preserve the building’s character, while new material interventions introduce warmth and clarity. Walnut furniture, plastered walls and a sculptural coffered ceiling shape the living spaces, anchored by a long dining table. The kitchen combines professional stainless-steel surfaces with generous daylight and garden views, functioning as both workspace and social hub. Throughout the apartment, muted ochres, greens and turquoise accents act as subtle architectural gestures, while bathrooms introduce marble and travertine tones.

A Canadian ranch

Daisy Ranch, designed by Olson Kundig for builder and fabricator Patrick Powers, is a home rooted in adventure, craft and landscape. Set on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, the cabin-like residence responds to its rugged surroundings with durable materials and a straightforward architectural framework. Inspired partly by the brick farmhouse Powers grew up in, the house features expansive windows that forge a strong connection to nature. The interior acts as a living archive of family history, filled with found objects and personal artefacts, including a canoe suspended from the ceiling. Designed to withstand the energy of family life, Daisy Ranch is a robust home that celebrates making and memory.

A Richard Neutra landmark

Richard Neutra’s 1960 Sale House in Los Angeles was listed for sale this month, offering a rare opportunity to inhabit a meticulously restored modernist landmark. Originally commissioned by Robert and Elsa Sale, the single-storey home exemplifies Neutra’s signature glass-walled design, with fluid living spaces radiating from a central kitchen. Panoramic glazing frames views of protected greenbelt land, city lights and the Pacific Ocean, allowing the house to shift with the seasons. Original details – including built-in furniture and mosaic tile work by Elsa Sale – were preserved during a sensitive restoration completed in 2021. The house has always remained fully lived in rather than museum-like, embodying Neutra’s belief that architecture should enhance wellbeing.

A Czech chalet

Na Kukačkách is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional alpine chalet, designed by edit! architects in the Giant Mountains of the Czech Republic. While the exterior adheres strictly to local building codes – with a timber-clad form, gabled roof and stone plinth – the interior introduces a bold, vertically connected spatial experience. Built using prefabricated cross-laminated timber panels, the chalet maximises daylight and views through large-format glazing on its freer façades. The main living space occupies the first floor, where a soaring timber ceiling and expansive west-facing window frame the mountainous landscape. Bedrooms are tucked into the eaves above, linked by a gallery that overlooks the living area.

A calming Palma home

Casa Óculo, designed by OHLAB on the outskirts of Palma, is a contemporary Mediterranean home shaped by light and material ageing. Defined by a large flat roof stretching across the site, the house is organised beneath thick lime-rendered walls that rhythmically divide interior spaces. A circular oculus punctures the roof, functioning as a domestic sundial that tracks the sun’s movement throughout the day. Materials – lime mortar, stone floors, wood and brass – were chosen for their ability to weather gracefully, and a lush Mediterranean garden is treated as an extension of the house, merging interior and exterior life. Casa Óculo offers a calm, sensory environment where architecture quietly frames the passage of time.

A woodland retreat

What began as a simple weekend retreat for a New York City couple evolved into a lifestyle transformation anchored by architecture and farming. Designed by Desai Chia Architecture, this house sits atop an 86-acre site in Columbia County with sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains. The low, elongated structure is organised around a central glass-walled living space, with bedroom wings extending on either side. A sweeping curved roof, inspired by the silhouette of oak leaves, shapes light, directs rainwater and softens the building’s relationship to the land. As the project unfolded, a working farm emerged alongside the house, turning the retreat into an immersive, seasonal way of life deeply connected to place.

A London retrofit

Trace is a low-carbon retrofit project by Bureau de Change that reimagines a 1980s brick building in Euston as contemporary multi-family housing rooted in circular design principles. Rather than demolish the existing structure, the architects retained and extended it, adding two floors to create five new apartments. The most distinctive feature is the bespoke glass-reinforced concrete façade, made using crushed bricks salvaged from the original building. Inspired by Georgian proportions and arches, and ntegrated into the wider Euston Area Plan, Trace demonstrates how reuse, material innovation and architectural sensitivity can offer a compelling model for urban housing.

About an hour-and-a-half north of San Francisco, sheltered from the rest of the world by a lush canopy of oaks, is a dynamic young family’s year-round escape from city life. But this place is more than a quick getaway – it’s pure devotion to the art of living.

Located on an acre-and-a-half lot in the heart of Sonoma’s wine country, the house offers sweeping views of the Mayacamas Mountains and the region’s famed vineyards. What was once a traditional 1960s Spanish hacienda-style home has been transformed into a stunning contemporary retreat thanks to Chroma, the San Francisco-based interior design studio led by partners Alexis Tompkins and Leann Conquer.

‘[Before we got involved] there was a discussion about whether to embrace the Spanish style or modernise it,’ says Tompkins, noting a whole-house renovation by award-winning Oakland-based firm building Lab set their design stage. ‘In the end, they really wanted to modernise it because of their incredible art collection.’

And, while the homeowners are serious art collectors who serve as board members of a prestigious contemporary art museum, being parents to two soon-to-be teenage daughters also meant creating an equally welcoming, playful environment. ‘They’re super laid-back,’ says Conquer. ‘The kids are into music and reading, and activities like archery and fencing, and really they just love being outside.’

To that end, the design duo conceived a vibrant, textural and wholly mid-century aesthetic that paid a convivial deference to the native landscape surrounding the 3,900 sq ft, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bathroom home.

In the living room, a full wall of sliding doors opens onto a pool deck and the countryside beyond. ‘It’s very much indoor-outdoor living and, although they wanted an overall casual feel, [she] wanted this particular space to be a little “turned up,”’ said Tompkins.

Central to the room, a pair of vintage 1950s lounge chairs by Lawrence Peabody were reupholstered in a patterned ecru fabric by La Manach. ‘We liked the delicateness of the silhouettes in contrast with something that was a little more solid, warm and earthy like the Kerman Coffee Table in natural cork by Egg Collective.’

Completing the main gathering area, a bespoke rug, a walnut-framed lounger chair by Rob Parry, a curved custom-designed sectional in a chartreuse mohair, and a large-scale work by abstract American artist Wyatt Kahn coalesce effortlessly.

Similarly, the dining room opens onto the gloriously endless native plant-filled yard, envisioned by Lucy McFadden Landscape Design. ‘We often design the dining tables for our projects,’ Tompkins shares, noting the table was handmade in San Francisco by Julian Giuntoli Custom Furniture.

A set of 1960 rattan-backed Danish dining chairs, upholstered in blue leather. Above, a pendant finished in iridescent chromate by Luft Tanaka Studio adds a modernist touch. Conquer, ‘The rattan brings in a more casual reference while its perforations mirror those in the chandelier,’ Conquer explains.

On the wall behind the table, a painting from the 1970s by Latvian-born American painter Andrew Jansons was a gift from the late artist to one of the clients' fathers, and, at the head of the dining table, a collection of abstract portraits by Kenturah Davis give the impression of being regular dinner guests.

Elsewhere in the home, works like a 1910 impressionist portrait by J. Phillip Schmand and a petite oil, Still Life with Smelt, by 19th-century English-born American painter Samuel Marsden Brookes are juxtaposed with a complex assemblage by contemporary Chicana artist Lorena Ochoa (that include elements such as a Toyota truck tailgate) and a pair of 2019 cyanotypes, by Sean McFarland.

Likewise, a separate guest cottage on the property presents itself as a work of art itself. ‘The walls and ceiling are so epic,’ says Tompkins of the Chroma-designed mural — a dreamy watercolor-like landscape — that was brought to life by Rafael Arana. ‘I’m really into atmospheric impact in a space where it’s all-consuming — you walk in and you feel transformed; it’s kind of magical.’

Here, furnishings like a Tito Agnoli lounge chair by Tito Agnoli, a custom coffee table, a marble top dining table by Sergio Rodrigues, and a set of four Gio Ponti dining chairs feel right at home with artworks from Los Angeles-based artist Patrick Martinez and Shannon Ebner.

For the clients — and designers alike — the country compound is the ultimate expression of l’art de vivre. ‘The homeowners are very open and experimental which matched perfectly with [our] design process that often pulls from obscure references,’ shares Tompkins. ‘And they were excited that we were excited about that kind of conceptual approach.’

In Sonoma County, California, a new coastal home emerges in the established Sea Ranch community. First developed in the 1960s, the area's wood-clad homes often feature architecture that blends modernism with a tactile, somewhat rustic feel, reflecting the tranquil nature of its context. In this setting, The House of Four Ecologies is a new residence located in the wider site's 10-mile expanse. It was designed by a small group of friends who wanted to share, enjoy and have access to the rugged coastal environment.

Tour a new coastal home in California

The design of the 1,600 square-foot residence was led by James Leng, who is also an architect and founding partner of the San Francisco-based architecture office Figure. Joining him are his life partner, Natasha Sadikin, a development director at Frolic Community; and friends Juney Lee, a professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, and Hoang Nguyen, an associate principal at Grimshaw Architects.

With parallel careers in the built environment, the friends shared a deep understanding of the concept of a sanctuary. As a result, the house was reimagined as a cluster of four volumes and designed to immerse itself within the landscape, nestled against a riparian corridor, adorned with a family of firs, wild coastal grasses and coffeeberry bushes that scatter across the landscape.

This multi-levelled mood board and inspiration lies behind the home's design, making sure that the residence offers a variety of visual and spatial orientations as it takes in the surrounding landscape.

Inside, the first living room, also playfully referred to as the 'Ocean Room,' is surrounded by a built-in banquette seating on three sides, creating a wrap-around gathering space, a cosy fire stove, and a large window that frames the Pacific Ocean.

The second room - the 'Garden Room' - is described as a room within a room, as it features a walled garden and a courtyard deck within the planted landscape. The room offers a series of sliding doors that allow the space to be flexible and, therefore, multifunctional.

Placed off the courtyard is the kitchen and dining space. This is the largest open-plan area in the house, and it acts as the heart of the home. Grounding the room, a large table is available to accommodate communal gatherings. The kitchen itself is a simple bar with a large horizontal awning window over the sink. More windows and skylights allow for a gentle breeze and daylight to trickle into the space.

The fourth room, just off the kitchen, is an ensuite studio space, overlooking the meadow outside. This room is spacious enough to fit a bed, a sitting area, and a long work table along the window wall.

Says Leng: ‘One might imagine enjoying the morning light on the ocean in the living room, basking in the warm noon sun in the sheltered courtyard, sharing a meal in the dining room tucked between trees, and adjourning to the ensuite under the soft dusk glow of the meadow to end the day.’

Navigating the house is like ambling through the landscape, a peaceful and comforting journey that feeds off and mirrors its natural context.

For a true design-in-the-desert experience, Casamia is a new contemporary house providing stylish remote retreats. Designed by the artist and musician Giancarlo Rondani, the custom desert house is located in Joshua Tree, California. Rondani, who has Brazilian, Peruvian, and Italian ancestry, usually works in motion graphics and 3D design. The Casamia project arose out of his own interest in architecture and is his first major built project.

‘I started experimenting on my own home [in Los Angeles], rethinking the interior layout and redesigning the whole backyard,’ the designer says, ‘Because my everyday tools are Cinema 4D and Photoshop, I used them to model and visualize everything first, almost as a way to prove the ideas to myself before committing to construction.’

From here, Rondani gained the confidence to translate his ideas in a full-scale new build project. ‘The desert has always been my place to reset from LA, and Joshua Tree in particular has a special energy,’ he says. The search for a suitable plot took place during Covid. ‘It took nearly a year to find the right piece of land,’ Rondani recalls, ‘it was completely raw with no utilities, water, or power.’

Casamia has taken three years to come together, guided by Rondani’s visualisation skills. ‘I used the same tools I work with every day to design the house,’ he says, ‘I built the entire project digitally first, studying the sun path, light behaviour, and wind direction and even how the desert would interact with the architecture before anything was constructed.’

The end result is a classically elegant modern villa, a structure that hugs low to the ground and directly interfaces with the desert terrain via careful landscaping. Part Case Study House, part Palm Springs modern, with a touch of minimalist sculpture, the black clad house celebrates the play of sunlight across the façade, changing patterns of light and straightforward construction materials.

‘Once we secured the land, the design and construction process unfolded over more than three years, from concept and sun path studies to the final build,’ says Rondani, ‘the process shaped the final form and the very minimal warm aesthetic you will see in the images.’

Arranged as two pavilions flanking a pool and firepit, Casamia features a main bedroom, two auxiliary bedrooms and large open-plan kitchen/diner. Covered walkways and terraces surround the structure to shade the sun and minimise the built footprint. Reservations are open now.

Book the house via CasamiaResort.com and also via Airbnb Luxe

Dramatic hillside residences are a Los Angeles speciality. Richard Neutra’s Lovell House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges Residence lead the pack, along with many other classics and innumerable DIY dwellings that exploited ‘unbuildable’ sites back in the days when such land was practically given away. Young Spanish architect Diego Cano-Lasso has made a notable addition to this legacy. Growing up in Madrid in the 1990s, he would hang out in the studios of his father and grandfather, both architects, learning how to use AutoCAD.

He remembers how much his grandfather enjoyed his work, and wanted to be like him. Leafing through a monograph, he chanced upon Julius Shulman’s 1960 nocturnal photograph of Pierre Koenig’s Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills, depicting two women in white dresses, seemingly suspended in a capsule of steel and glass, floating above a carpet of lights. For Cano-Lasso, it ignited a dream of living in LA and, years later, he moved there, got his master’s degree at SCI-Arc and settled in the city.

Tour Cano House, a colourful Los Angeles hills dwelling

In 2019, he teamed up with SelgasCano, the Madrid firm co-founded by his aunt Lucia and her husband José Selgas, to construct the Second Home Hollywood co-working space (now operating under different owners as The Preserve). They also purchased a steep site on Mount Washington in north-east LA, and each designed a house for themselves, side by side, similar in construction, but radically different in appearance. SelgasCano indulged its love of colour, cladding the exterior in polychromatic recycled aluminium tubes, an echo of the pavilion it designed for the Serpentine Gallery in London in 2015.

Cano-Lasso’s incarnation is a lightweight, two-storey, post-and-beam structure with a narrow garden. The house cantilevers out from the hillside, with decked terraces at both levels offering views of the Elysian Valley and Hollywood Hills. Glass doors pivot open on both sides to capture the California breezes. ‘The idea behind this house was to create an environment conducive to the lifestyle LA offers: abundant natural light, a connection to nature, enchanting city views and tranquillity,’ says Cano-Lasso. ‘I feel most at home in the garden. It’s a sanctuary, looking out to the city through the living room, yet sheltered from it; surrounded by flowers, birds and the soothing sound of a fountain.’

The first structural engineer that the architect approached insisted the design wouldn’t meet the city’s tough building code. The second made adjustments to secure approval, and a team of skilled workers slotted 42ft-long glulam beams into steel tube columns by hand, tying them back to the fully-exposed concrete retaining wall. Meanwhile, lower-level rooms sport ribbed wood ceilings. Cano-Lasso finds a lyrical rhythm in the repetition of the joists and ribs, recalling Goethe’s definition of architecture as ‘frozen music’.

The floors are made of American red oak, while walls are lined in radiata pine plywood. Cano-Lasso had come to appreciate plywood while living in Rudolph Schindler’s Sachs apartments – it was one of the Austrian-born architect’s favourite materials. To block the intense heat of the westerly afternoon sun, louvred redwood planks on the terraces can be turned and wooden Venetian blinds lowered.

The floorplan, drawn up by Cano-Lasso’s father, features an open-plan living and dining area, which opens onto the garden, and two bedrooms on the upper level, while a spiral staircase descends to another bedroom, an office and recreational areas on the lower level. Cano-Lasso’s brother, Alejandro, who sometimes works under the name Doctor Cato, created a mural of vibrantly coloured zellige tiles, imported from Morocco, to animate a concrete wall in the garden. The pivoting glass doors were brought from Spain, and ceramic downspouts were repurposed as wall lamps.

The house is sparsely furnished with a series of thoughtfully curated, custom-made pieces. Alejandro created several lamps, as well as some chairs inspired by the work of Wright and Schindler. Andrew Riiska, an artist whom Cano-Lasso met at SCI-Arc, contributed a bench and stool enriched with colourful upholstered blobs. Two massive boulders, found on site, were craned into the house before the windows were installed and double as side tables. At the outset, Cano-Lasso, his wife and brother moved things around to achieve a satisfying composition. ‘We were looking for pieces that were individually appealing and had a relationship with each other, but I didn’t want to lose the sense of open space,’ says Cano-Lasso.

Building this house was no picnic. It took seven years from design to completion, including a three-year shutdown during the pandemic, but it validated the skill of a fledgling architect whose website is full of speculative designs for fanciful hillside houses. Even if these go unrealised, Cano-Lasso has demonstrated that he can master the challenge of a difficult site, creating a home that is down-to-earth yet infused with poetry. It should serve as a springboard to many future commissions.

diegocanolasso.com

selgascano.net

This article appears in the December 2025 Entertaining Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + from 6 November. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Robert Stone aims to create architecture that expands beyond the realm of traditional design ideals. When working on a new house design, he always explores fresh possibilities without limitations, looking for angles that not only challenge the status quo but turn it on its head.

In fact, in creating anything from clothing – a custom-fitted white T-shirt – to a strap-on sub-woofer, Stone has brought a fresh perspective to every design he has developed, while going for aesthetics that set his work apart from the current mainstream. His early career was spent overseeing architecture projects in Los Angeles while developing an art practice with gallery and museum exhibits in the US and Europe. Eventually, this journey led him back to architecture, offering a take that feels entirely unique to the field.

Robert Stone's new desert house case study

Stone’s architectural style looks different because he thinks differently about architecture. ‘Like all other architects, I am enamoured with the abstract qualities of form and spatial compositions, but I am also interested in creating new aesthetics from current culture and the meaning that we attach to buildings and materials.’ As he’s not interested in perpetuating a fake past or future, Stone found a vast unexplored realm to make architecture that connects to ‘who we are now.’

After building the highly praised Rosa Muerta house in Joshua Tree – which was the site for a campaign photo shoot by Saint Laurent – Stone’s new home in Palm Springs comprises a main dwelling and a guest house. His inspiration finds its roots in its locale and Southern California culture, from Chicano to modernist. ‘Dreamer / Lil’ Dreamer’ isn't about a client or the architect, but endeavours to address the current ethos of its territory, while creating connections that might resonate with a wider art and design audience.

Examining the sloping roof

Almost like an exaggerated A-Frame, the project's sloped roof with reflective tiles and the abstract stacking of breeze blocks in different sizes showcase how Stone works hard to challenge the norm of what a contemporary Palm Springs house might look like. ‘I want to get them past “Wow, this looks different”, to “this makes me look at things differently”.’

The first noticeable element is that the roof touches the ground, but the floors don't. The house's shape emerged from a new formal concept. ‘It is a modern glass box and a Spanish tract house re-spawned at the same coordinates and digitally edited together,’ he notes. ‘The roof sits on the dirt like a dropped lowrider, while the floors hover above the earth as cantilevered planes.

‘In most homes, nothing happens until you get four feet above a person's head. And I like to do things that engage the body at the ankle, knee, hip, shoulders, and head. So, by bringing the roof down to the ground, it gives it this entirely different relationship to the body and the ground.’

This desert house certainly wakes up the senses, which is one of Stone’s goals, along with reinventing formal and design relationships while creating dynamic spaces. ‘Here, we are doing this by reinvigorating the basic vocabulary of desert architecture,' he says.

Astroturf and breeze blocks

Born and raised in Palm Springs, Stone draws from all elements of this context: architecture from classic modernism to Spanish, abandoned tract houses to golf courses, the desert lifestyle, multi-cultural chic, art, music, design, and fashion aesthetics, all converge to help him produce something that feels ‘relevant here and now.’

‘Palm Springs has an amazing history of iconic houses, but I was always lost by its disconnect with contemporary culture,’ he says. ‘In my past work, I have gravitated toward raw desert areas where I can produce highly cultured architecture that is amplified by its contrast with nature.' While Stone aims to move beyond the borders of modern architecture, he’s not working in opposition to modernism. ‘I just want to make architecture that engages our time. We're alive now. I tell my clients that the audience is not them or me, it's the world.’

To that end, Stone decided to elevate the artificial astroturf lawn – an element that is here reframed as a key building material. ‘It intersects the house, pool, and landscape in ways that a real lawn couldn’t, and it flows into the living room interior to rethink our connection to nature with a candour that fits our time, and I think it's more interesting in those qualities than just a perfect lawn.’

Stone also redefined a cornerstone of Southern California's traditional handcrafted materials and architecture, the Spanish tiled roof. The pottery-made tiles on the Dreamer home glitter with new glazes and four shades of silver that suggest a new kind of ‘California Chicano futurism’.

Stone strives to find a new kind of truth and beauty in his work with everyday items that are not normally celebrated. Case in point, the air-conditioner units that were transformed into gold-coated cube sculptures set on prominent podiums and presented as ‘idealised representations of ubiquitous equipment’ that are usually hidden. These pieces are now put in the spotlight as the ‘jewellery’ of the house, and an ‘honest assertion of our relationship to nature’.

Stone also approaches the quintessential, often mass-produced, modernist breeze block more like an artist’s composition on a canvas or sculpture. The house features perforated walls in various patterns and configurations that express both the beauty and limitations of its machine aesthetics, blending them with handmade craft. ‘Each block placed in the wall is a decision made by a person – arranged to pull the eye along it, create open and dense areas, and to suggest a pictorial reading.’

Mirrored ceilings and Spanish fusion

In the stainless steel and green-coloured kitchen, Stone took inspiration from Japanese Tansu cabinets and Prada handbags. Crocodile-textured leather and custom-made stainless hardware help create a new domestic interior aesthetic.

He is also seeking fresh surface combinations and uses ‘tension between colours to find new and unique beauty’. Copper pink, metallic avocado, shades of silver, purple, and green hues are combined in a way that draws from contemporary fashion references. ‘I went to the Miuccia Prada school of colour,’ he says. ‘I love colours that kind of like work against each other, but then come together beautifully.’

Polished stainless wrought iron at the front of the house turns the ubiquitous indicator of perceived ‘bad neighbourhoods’ in Southern California into an abstract sculptural form of Spanish fusion. ‘What would California be without that stuff? Our culture is 50 per cent Mexican-American,’ he says.

‘There's a little bit of a strategy that runs through a lot of my work. If you can change the proportions of something – and fashion designers do this all the time – you can make something really connect differently and wake up your senses. Lowriders do that by taking a 1963 Impala that is stock height, but if you drop it five inches, everything about it changes, and it becomes kind of sinister.’

Along with ‘refreshing the roof-ground relationship’, Stone’s use of the square mirrored ceiling panels is recurrent in his practice. They blend inside and outside by reflecting the desert flora when you look at the ceiling, while bringing natural daylight into the room.

One element that Stone pointed out about the mirrored ceiling is that not all the panels are perfectly set, so it’s a little bit like a disco ball; when you walk around, everything moves, and the reflections jump a little bit from the panels. It's a bold move. ‘You think it's going to be kind of tacky, but if it's detailed and done right, it can be taken seriously. It feels like what California architecture should be, but it can also be sexy and kind of druggie. That is who we are.’

In the end, Stone wants to make architecture that inspires the audience to attach meaning to it. ‘And, rather than being above or outside of culture, I am right there alongside the audience, questioning and connecting this architecture to the world we live in.’

robertstonedesign.com

If Ed Ruscha made a chocolate bar, it would hit just the right note between Californian bounty and playful elegance. Lucky, then, that his first foray into sweet edible art embodies exactly this, with a collaboration with andSons Chocolatiers bringing an arty spin to ‘Made in California’, a seriously good chocolate.

Why chocolate? ‘We think the best kind of art is one that raises questions and opens a dialogue,’ says Marc Covitz of the family-run, Beverly Hills-based chocolatier. ‘This particular work always resonated and was an invitation to explore what Made in California means to us. We grew up seeing Ruscha's work and were re-inspired by his recent retrospectives at MoMA and LACMA. We approached the studio and were so pleased with their willingness to collaborate. After many iterations, the project fell into place quite easily.’

The result is made of three ingredients: blood orange olive oil from Petaluma, Sonoma County; sea salt from Tomales Bay; and 73 per cent Peruvian dark chocolate roasted by Chef Thomas Keller in Napa Valley. It is cast in a handcrafted mould of a section of California's Central Valley, stretching from the Pacific Ocean down to the Santa Lucia Mountains. ‘Chef Sandy Tran dreamed up this visual expression, of a region known for agriculture,’ Covitz adds. ‘From her experience of being the executive pastry chef of The French Laundry in Napa. Chef Sandy was familiar with many Californian organic farms. She and our culinary team take an ingredient-first approach and hand-select each vendor. It is also meaningful to our family business to identify and support other independent businesses.’

The chocolate comes in a cloth-wrapped box printed with a reproduction of Ruscha’s lithograph, Made in California (1971), courtesy of the artist and Gagosian. Says Covitz, ‘[He’s] one of the great artists of our time, [and] we could not resist the opportunity to craft a playful response to the work.’

Made in California is $295, in an edition of 300, and available from early December 2025 for pick-up in Beverly Hills or USA and Canada shipping, and-sons.com; sign up on the website to get notified

and-sons.com/california

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A terraced home transformation

Architects Edward Williams and Laura Carrara-Cagni of Cagni Williams Associates reimagined this Edwardian terraced house in south London as a sustainable, light-filled home. A striking new ‘gallery’ extension – clad in Corten steel and glass – replaces the old conservatory and brings a sculptural modernity to the rear façade. The rest of design balances bold forms with natural warmth, linking home and garden through large pivoting doors and oak-lined interiors. From the outset, sustainability guided the project, which features an air-source heat pump and underfloor heating.

A Malibu beach pad

Interior designer Pamela Shamshiri has transformed a 1990s Malibu beachfront compound for producer Jana Bezdek, fusing Hollywood glamour with Brazilian modernism. Inspired by Lina Bo Bardi and James Bond, the main house features a sculptural De Sede sofa, white terrazzo floors and a curved timber bar, all cast in an elegant taupe-to-caramel palette. Elsewhere, a crimson screening room exudes California luxury, and mirrored walls ensure ocean views from the bedroom and office. Outside, lush landscaping and tiered terraces further blur the boundary between indoor and out.

An Arizona compound

Prompted by a zoning law change that sanctioned attached secondary units, architect Benjamin Hall converted this suburban Phoenix house into a multigenerational desert compound. Using cost-efficient concrete masonry units (CMU), he designed a 1,700 sq ft addition that harmonises with the desert landscape both aesthetically and environmentally – thick, insulated walls, concrete floors and maple cabinetry create a minimalist yet welcoming interior, while sliding doors open onto a courtyard planted with native flora and framed by mountain views.

A Canadian modernist gem

Perched on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Morse House (1983) by Dick Mann of Thompson Berwick Pratt epitomises West Coast modernism. Crafted from cedar, fir, stone and glass, the 21,526 sq ft residence immerses its occupants in forest and ocean panoramas. A cedar staircase descends to a glazed façade surrounded by gardens and waterfalls, leading to an atrium centred around a 50ft pool and a soaring great hall. With its guesthouse, gym and private dock, this handcrafted home achieves a rare equilibrium between architecture and nature.

An eco-brutalist sanctuary

On the outskirts of Hyderabad, Antriya by 23 Degrees Design Shift redefines brutalism as lush, livable and sustainable. Constructed from local Khammam sandstone and Markapuram slate, and softened with reclaimed teak and abundant greenery, the 14,500 sq ft residence accommodates three generations of one family. Cascading plants and lily pad-filled ponds blur boundaries between architecture and nature while passively regulating the tropical climate. Concealed behind boundary walls, the home seems to emerge from the undergrowth as you approach – a tactile, nature-infused reimagining of brutalism.

A Canadian cabin 

In Ontario’s wooded hills, AKB Architects’ Timbertop is a minimalist four-bedroom retreat designed for family gatherings and outdoor adventure. The single-storey, barn-inspired home marries rural simplicity with modern refinement. Clad in crisp white to contrast with the surrounding evergreens, the home withstands heavy snow and wind while maintaining warmth and intimacy under its pitched gabled roof. Open-plan living, kitchen and library spaces create a cosy refuge amid the winter landscape.

A rainforest retreat

Set deep in the Costa Rican jungle, Studio House by Dagmar Štěpánová of Formafatal appears to float above a slope on concrete and Corten steel supports, minimising impact on the terrain. Designed as Štěpánová’s personal residence, the 125 sq m structure consists of open terraces, raw concrete interiors and a glazing-free ocean-facing window which immerses the home in the sounds and textures of the forest. Two simple bedrooms and an infinity pool continue the elemental aesthetic, while the rooftop and east terraces offer uninterrupted views of the Pacific.

A brick and concrete home

In Ahmedabad, architect Vaissnavi Shukl’s Teen Vaults reinterprets brick-and-concrete construction. Originally conceived as a weekend retreat, it evolved into a full-time family residence organised around three vaulted volumes – one for for dining, one for living, and one for reading. Exposed brick walls, terrazzo floors and teak furniture evoke a grounded simplicity, while a folded concrete staircase with a wooden-bead railing adds sculptural elegance. A central courtyard surrounded by mango and frangipani trees serves as the home’s spiritual heart.

For about as long as there’s been Hollywood, there’s been Malibu. A century ago, along an exclusive stretch of sand known as the Malibu Colony, you might have chanced upon Gloria Swanson and Charlie Chaplin engaged in a lively game of table tennis; these days, you might bump into Tom Hanks or Flea. Interior designer Pamela Shamshiri had two very different stars in mind, however, for her recent reimagining of a family house: Lina Bo Bardi and James Bond. ‘We wanted it to be Malibu at its most glamorous,’ she says.

Luckily, the property itself was not short of cinematic charisma. The narrow, half-acre plot featured three structures, built in the late 1990s, that bookended a garden and a pool. These included a pair of two-storey volumes containing a 5,000 sq ft primary residence and guest suites. From the beach-facing main house, with its broad expanses of windows and low-slung profile, it felt like you could almost touch the Pacific Ocean.

Tour this modern Malibu beach house

For the property’s owner Jana Bezdek, co-founder of production company FourthWall Theatrical, the home fulfilled a lifelong yearning to be on the water. ‘My husband is from a neighbourhood called Rustic Canyon and I grew up in Del Mar, California. We were always drawn to being close to the beach,’ she says.

So when she came across the property four years ago, Bezdek pounced. The house would not only serve as a beach escape for her family, but it would also be a romantic nod to her husband, who proposed to her on that very section of beach. To realise her vision, Bezdek tapped Shamshiri, who had previously designed her family’s main residence in LA, as well as her New York pied-à-terre. ‘She was the only person I could imagine working with,’ Bezdek says.

Shamshiri was struck by the compound’s low-slung modernist vocabulary, something of an anomaly in this part of Malibu. A silver screen-worthy concept emerged, one with modernism as its protagonist. ‘We were like, what if it’s 007 at the beach? What if Lina Bo Bardi, her Brazilian modernist friends and a Bond girl could all walk in and have a cocktail?’ the designer remembers. ‘We really treated it as a Brazilian pavilion in Malibu.’

Fortunately, the structures required zero spatial rejiggering, leaving Shamshiri and her team to focus on infusing the spaces with drama. For inspiration, they researched Bo Bardi’s oeuvre – which encompasses some of Brazil’s most renowned modernist buildings – and watched back-to-back Bond films.

For the main residence, which contained the kitchen, living and entertaining spaces on the ground floor and the primary bedroom suite on the upper level, the designer wanted to incorporate ocean views everywhere, even when you weren’t facing it directly. So she installed dark mirrors on all of the surf-facing walls. ‘I love mirrors,’ Shamshiri says. ‘They can act as a portal that transports you to somewhere else. You’re just in a swirl of water in motion.’ Structural steel columns, meanwhile, were painted in a deep ocean blue hue for added effect.

To counter the gleaming surfaces, the design team wanted to create a cocooning sensation. Though the main house was largely open plan, the ceilings were low. Shamshiri and her team ran with it. ‘We accepted right away that the ceilings were low. So we created a sandwich of white ceilings above and white floors below, and then made everything else dark,’ she says.

The team opted for a palette of taupe, mocha and caramel. A wall backing the kitchen was painted black (‘It’s like a faded black T-shirt colour,’ Shamshiri says), while corridors and the primary bedroom were swaddled in a luxurious suede wallcovering (‘It came with a brush!’ she adds).

Entering the open-plan living space, with the ocean waves crashing in view, offers the chance to both take a load off and become the most glamorous version of yourself. The pièce de résistance here is a ‘DS-600’ leather sofa, a 1972 design by De Sede, which snakes across practically the entire length of the room, creating discrete seating nooks within its curves, populated with pieces by Bo Bardi contemporaries such as Joaquim Tenreiro. ‘I love that living room so much,’ Shamshiri says. ‘If you’re two people or you’re 50 people, it doesn’t make a difference.’

The clients love to entertain, so having a standout cocktail set-up was a must. The custom-made timber bar, whose undulating form echoes the shape of the sofa, comes clad in a row of olive-green tiles for a funky kick. You can almost imagine Bond, perched on a ‘Mexique’ stool by Charlotte Perriand, ordering his signature martini. ‘We wanted it to feel that you could be barefoot, in your bathing suit, making a drink, and it still feels elevated,’ Shamshiri explains.

Up a set of floating stairs is the primary bedroom suite. The mood here quietens down, but like the living area, the bedroom is anchored by a statement sofa, a pair of Patricia Urquiola ‘Tufty-Time’ sofas for B&B Italia arranged back-to-back. ‘We emphasised the horizontal, because the horizon is the greatest thing about being at the beach,’ the designer says. There’s also an office space for Bezdek and her husband, where, thanks to mirrors cleverly installed behind the shelves, the ocean is always nearby.

In fact, nature is always close at hand, thanks to lush grounds created by LA-based landscape designer Matthew Brown. Working alongside Shamshiri, he created a series of outdoor spaces including a firepit, a pool deck and, most striking of all, an oceanfront living room. ‘He has such a great way of softening and letting things feel very native in California, but overgrown,’ notes Shamshiri.

One of the guest suites contains a glamorous secret: a screening room where every surface, from the carpet and the ceiling to the Loro Piana fabric on the ‘Togo’ sofas, is drenched in the same crimson hue. ‘If this is Hollywood at the beach, what colour would you want to be drenched in? We were like, red,’ says Shamshiri. Here, Bezdek, her husband and their two young sons can pile in for movie nights. A bar hidden behind the red panelled walls is perfect for hosting friends. ‘Late at night, everyone always ends up in that room, even just to talk,’ Shamshiri adds.

Bezdek and her family are putting the house to good use, hosting impromptu dance parties in the living room and taking in the crash of waves on the terraces. ‘She can intuit someone’s inner vision, and then deliver something far beyond what anyone could have ever imagined,’ Bezdek says of Shamshiri. For the designer, that’s the sign of a job well done. ‘I love seeing how much everyone smiles,’ she says. ‘People just love this house.’

studioshamshiri.com

In the Fender guitar factory in Corona, California, beneath the gaze of the game-changing riff-masters (Jimi Hendrix, Phil Lynott, Jeff Beck) whose action-shot portraiture hangs high on the walls, the morning shift is hitting all the right notes – if those notes were the sound of whirring, sawing, sanding, buzzing, banging and clanking.

All this sweet industrial music is the sound of a hand-tooled production line, of multiple squads of dusty, visored, apron-wearing craftspeople building the 79-year-old company’s next generation of instruments: the American Professional Classic series.

‘People have this idea that when we mass-produce guitars, you throw a piece of wood in a giant machine and it spits out a guitar at the other end,’ says Allen Abbassi, director of Product Management at Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. ‘Nothing could be further from the truth. We do take advantage of modern technology with CNC machines that cut the bodies and necks initially. But there are over 150 hand processes that our operators perform on these guitars when they’re building them.’

After a protective goggle-sporting tour of the Corona facility – where the action is louder than many of the gigs I’ve been to – 52 miles east of Fender’s corporate HQ in Los Angeles, I can confirm that Stratocasters, Telecasters, Jazzmasters and Jaguars are indeed built, with care and precision, from scratch over some 22 days, starting with sawmilled hunks of ash, alder and rosewood. And also what Abbassi says is true: ‘The guys in the factory [are] artisans.’

Fender doesn’t just build guitars in the USA. The company’s factories in Mexico, China, Indonesia and India take care of more volume-focused models, including the Squier sub-brand, while Japan is another source of more specialist models. Corona, however, remains the motherlode, the most visible demonstration of the art and craft of modern guitar making.

‘The computerisation is really just to nail the geometry and the math,’ says Justin Norvell, president of Fender’s Americas division, talking of the iconic curves and contours of the company’s foundational rock’n’roll guitars, when we meet the following day in his Hollywood office. ‘Then hands blend everything and make everything work and get everything to fit – and wake it up as a product.

‘It’s not just the ingredients coming together,’ this tattooed C-suite rock stan continues. ‘It’s a system, and it’s the way that we put it together. If I make a meal next to a master chef out of the same recipe, mine’s not gonna be as good as theirs. So that love, that hand care – sanding off the edges of the fretboard that makes your hand fit like your best pair of jeans – is all-important to what makes these instruments iconic.’

With this new range, that iconography continues. The American Professional Classic series is ‘kind of a little brother to the American Professional series’, explains Abbassi. He’s standing, cradling one of the box-fresh new instruments, shiny racks of others behind him, in a demonstration space outside a Fender HQ meeting room labelled ‘Johnny Marr’ (one of the company’s ambassadors).

‘The “Classic” part is that all these guitars have a vintage vibe to them. In the 1950s and 1960s, Fender used very specific parts and styles of pick-ups. All these guitars represent that very well – they have vintage-style bridges and tuners. So they have this really beautiful, bell-like, chime-y sound that Fender’s known for,’ he says, pealing out a chord. ‘All the instruments are very personal,’ Abbassi adds. ‘They can be used for virtually any kind of music, from rock to funk to blues to punk.’

And they’re ready to rock. For all their design studio beauty, with a (relatively) accessible starting price-point of $1,499.99/£1,499 (€1,799, AUD2,599, ¥242,000), ‘these are road-worthy, ready-for-the-stage guitars that you could grab right off the hook [in] a store and go right to a gig and play’.

That vintage DNA is equally represented in the new series’ look. The colourways are also heritage: in the mid-20th century, Fender ‘borrowed’ from American car companies, spraying exactly the same lacquer paint on their guitars. ‘Lake Placid Blue Metallic was probably on some old Ford,’ says Abbassi. ‘Firemist Gold, Sherwood Green Metallic – these are all colours from the 1950s and 1960s.’

To put a contemporary spin on these heritage hues (which also include Dakota Red, Butterscotch Blonde and what Abbassi accurately describes as ‘the most ubiquitous and fan-favourite Fender colour of all time’, 3-Colour Sunburst), Fender has, paradoxically, found something ‘new and exciting’ by fading some of them, just as those old automobile lacquer paints would have faded.

The team researched washed-out, 70-year-old guitars online and at storied dealers such as Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California. Then they chose the hues they wanted, finessing those with paint company TCP, with ‘samples flying back and forth’ (‘make it five per cent darker’); it sometimes taking ‘eight to ten versions’ to arrive at the right shade.

‘So they have almost a patina to them. For instance, this [Stratocaster] HSS strap here,’ continues Abbassi, pointing to another instrument, ‘is a Faded Black. It’s almost like a beautiful, blue-hued charcoal.’

‘Or an old T-shirt,’ chimes in Joey Brasler, VP of Product Management, with a grin. ‘That’s what it’s supposed to be.’ Explaining further, he says: ‘Justin’s the one that came up with the faded black. He ran to his office and came back with – literally – an old T-shirt. So we took pictures of it…’

‘I have a vintage black Clash T-shirt that I bought in Tokyo,’ says Norvell, sat at his desk in front of a Shepard Fairey stencil rendering of Joe Strummer, another previous Fender collaborator. ‘It’s the idea that a brand-new black T-shirt isn’t the same as a faded, worn one. It’s that aesthetic [that speaks to the fact that] so many of our instruments are heirlooms. They live for decades. People are still playing ones from the 1950s. A lot of your favourite artists are still playing the guitar they had forever. How do you imbue the age into something, but without necessarily really beating it up? So it was the idea of ageing these vintage colours… How can we reinterpret them… in a new way that is still aesthetically comfortable?’

All that vintaging? It’s about evoking serious use and serious love. These are not museum pieces, or art pieces. They’re certainly artful, but of fundamental importance is the guitars having both utility and a baked-in, respectful feel of heritage. As Norvell puts it: ‘The history of Fender is littered with cultural moments that are the soundtrack of people’s lives – whether that’s Buddy Holly on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles on the [Savile Row] rooftop, [The Clash’s] London Calling, or Hendrix playing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock or lighting his guitar on fire [at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967].

‘This culture map of music is inexorably linked to Fender,’ the exec continues. ‘So harkening to the past in that aesthetic way makes a lot of sense – and puts you more in touch with that past. Things that are classic or vintage, we don’t view as necessarily just old. They’re the icons that are timeless, not just timely.’

That timeliness is working in other ways, too. After years when guitar music – whether hard rock, indie or pop-leaning – has felt moribund and, frankly, unfashionable, there’s a resurgence afoot.

That’s embodied in younger British artists such as this week’s Mercury Music Prize winner Sam (no relation) Fender and The Last Dinner Party, and in insurgent American acts such as Geese or Turnstile, the latter the Baltimore hardcore outfit who are fronting the American Pro Classic campaign. It’s embodied, too, in the widening appeal, outside the US, of country music – a sound that’s embodied by the Telecaster.

‘Country’s been huge,’ acknowledges Norvell, adding that that’s certainly been good for FMIC business. But he also cites ‘pop artists choosing to grab guitars, like Olivia Rodrigo’, plus artists who are ‘bubbling up – you can feel that there’s a groundswell occurring. There are small things, too – the shoegaze revival, nu-metal revival – [where] you can feel the guitar tide level is coming up. But also,’ he adds with a defiant, true-believer flourish, ‘it never went away.’

And of course, this is also the year of the world-wowing Oasis comeback tour. Post-Live ’25, does this music obsessive – who is, naturally, himself a guitarist, his own cherished instruments propped against the wall in his office – think we’ll see a generational bounce of new players? He nods.

‘[With] all of these bands that have dusted it off and come back out, the Gen X-ers are bringing the kids,’ Norvell says – an observable fact to which anyone who witnessed the enraptured, all-ages audiences at this summer’s Oasis shows around the world can attest. ‘But the kids have grown up on this stuff, too. And are inspired by it. It’s definitely something we’re hopeful of – and it feels like it’s happening. You can sense that the guitar is entering another cycle of relevance and coolness.’

The Fender American Professional Classic Series is available globally now. For more information, please visit Fender.com, @Fender

Commune Design, the Los Angeles-based design studio, has unveiled a psychedelia-inspired collection of hand-knotted wool and silk rugs for contemporary rug company Christopher Farr. The collection boasts warm and inviting tones, with floral patterns interpreted through the lens of 1960s and 1970s Northern California.

Commune Design’s ‘Psychedelic’ collection for Christopher Farr

Three rug patterns, ‘Poppies’, ‘Weed’ and ‘Mushroom’ offer an alternative interpretation of classic Persian and European designs, yet the overall tone dances between old and new. Instead of a classic William Morris ivy border, cannabis garlands wrap rug edges. A gemstone palette of hues adopts the colour saturation typical of silk-screen Fillmore concert posters. And huge, scattered technicolour poppies evoke the work of a Jean-Michel Frank, nodding to the French designer’s 'luxe pauvre' (poor luxury) aesthetic.

The entire collection is rooted in a Northern California aesthetic, Commune Design having strong ties to the area. The designers took aesthetic cues from the region's arts and crafts traditions as well as its natural scenery, which includes the Sierra Nevada and redwood forests.

The design studio felt it fitting to shoot the ‘Psychedelic’ collection in late artist JB Blunk’s hand-built home. Reflecting an avant-garde, free-thinking approach to construction, the Blunk House encapsulates materiality, texture and colour; ‘[It's] everything we aim these rugs to be’, say the designers.

Commune Design's work matches the ethos of Christopher Farr; the artist and designer started his eponymous brand in 1988, with a mission to unite heritage textile craftsmanship with contemporary design.