The California landscape lends itself to living an outdoor lifestyle.  The house is set like a stage that overlooks the orchard, the Monterey pine trees to the South, the neighbors sheep, and a distant Mayacamas Mountain and vineyard view.

The white homestead barn building on the Mocabee property is used as an art studio and connected to the western red cedar clad house by an outdoor L shaped ipe deck, forming a right angled courtyard.  

The buildings are placed perpendicular to one another with a 14 foot space between them, so you can borrow a view and feel like you see through the buildings.  The pool is placed on center with the white barn, parallel with the house.

The house feels like slow architecture, a farm to table type of contemporary sustainable agrarian architecture.

Gustave Carlson, residential architect, artist and author of Pacific Modern, Hygge— the Danish concept of comfort—finds architecture and design expression in his multi-faceted portfolio of residential architectural designs. An East Coast transplant of Scandinavian heritage who moved to Northern California more than 20 years ago, Carlson interprets hygge for places where the weather is (relatively) milder, and blue skies abound, but wellness is still the ultimate goal. While his work is rooted in California Modern, he fluently layers themes of that influential architecture vocabulary across various styles—from Northern California cabin, and farmhouse, to classic, Craftsman, and contemporary.

"Hygge is about quality of life, and residential architecture sets the stage," says Carlson, whose residential commissions span architectural styles from classic and mid-century modern, to Bay Area regional. "The experience of a home that is aligned with the individual generates a sense of joy, which is eventually carried beyond its walls."

Team:

Architects: Gustave Carlson Design

Photographers: Laure Joliet, Paul Dyer & Belden Carlson