This small studio in the garden of a historic residence in Pasadena, California, houses the library of architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. Upon leaving his full-time position at the LA-times in 2018, he brought back his collection of books to his house in Pasadena and asked us to re-think a small structure behind the carport in his garden: it had to serve as a reading and writing studio. Still, it needed to function as well as a small guest-unit when required.
The design consists of a single continuous blue element that incorporates the flexible storage for books, a desk, and access to a small bathroom, defining a clear horizon with the irregular pitch roof volume. At the same time, the studio characterized by these blue bookshelves wrapping around its rectangular space, the pill-shaped bathroom surrounded by an uninterrupted grid of white square tiles.
Light filters into the bathroom through a single glass clerestory window. It generates a visual continuity between the two interior spaces while not allowing the humidity of the shower to reach the books. The studio opens up towards a patio in the garden that serves as an outdoor extension of the writing studio.
Team:
Architecture: PRODUCTORA (Carlos Bedoya, Victor Jaime, Wonne Ickx, Abel Perles) in collaboration with Part Office (Jeff Kaplon, Kristin Korven)
Collaborators: Ruy Berumen, Diego Velazquez, Tessa Watson, Spencer Fried
Structure: IDG Structural Engineering (Farshid Behshid)
Color consultant: Jessica Fleischmann (Still room)
Contractor: Behr Construction (John Mills)
Client: Rachel Fine and Christopher Hawthorne
Photography: Taiyo Watanabe
