The design of the house begins with the story of its occupants. Two families had become one, and they needed a space that could meet the needs of their new family. Architect Clive Wilkinson had two young children, and his wife Elisabeth had a teenage daughter. The kids needed separate rooms – individual spaces for personal growth within this new merged family. The chosen hillside location provides vertical separation, allowing each floor to be employed for a different purpose. The ground floor includes the three children’s bedrooms and a studio; the middle floor holds the master bedroom and a guest bedroom; the top floor is the large communal space that brings the family together.
An inspiration for the house was the iconic modern homes that seem to float above the city, perched within the backbone of the hills that shape the Los Angeles Basin. Clive had always yearned for the slightly surreal opportunity of designing his own floating home and finally had the chance to do so when he came across a steep site in West Los Angeles for sale in 2016. However, the existing house was so overgrown that one could only see the view below from an adjacent public walkway. Once the site was cleared, the view revealed itself and it became clear that the architecture needed to respond directly to and highlight the spectacular scenery of the vast urban landscape below.
Matching the two-story scale of its neighbors, the house is entered from the rear street. Visitors descend into the front entry terrace and, from there, are drawn upstairs to a full-width balcony overlooking the city. The living floor is open on its south side and expressed as a large beamed attic space formed entirely in wood, with walls and ceiling of sand-blasted Douglas Fir and flooring in wide plank White Oak. Kitchen, dining and living all co-exist, orienting to the south view. At the rear is the enclosed library with custom black steel shelving, which doubles as a media room. The exterior of this top floor volume is clad in custom black zinc panels, emphasizing its role as the crow’s nest, or observatory, of the house.
The lower floors hold five bedrooms and five bathrooms, as well as a den and small gym. The children’s bedrooms open onto the stone-tiled infinity pool terrace and garden, which extends down the hill. The steep site provides three distinct social spaces: the living attic, pool deck, and garden terrace. The separate levels address the varying needs of the family, as adults and kids have their own areas but can get together for social, recreational and dining needs.
With rough enclosing walls of sand-blasted concrete enveloping the first two floors, the house is nestled into the hillside and thermally insulated. Lighting was a vital design element – the fully programmable and customizable LED system allows for control of every fixture, offering a planned circadian rhythm program that sees the house gradually responding to bright cool sunlight during the day and warm candlelight coloration at night. These gradient changes make for highly responsive mood environments that can either energize or relax the occupants depending on the occasion and time of day.
Several sustainable features were installed on-site, including energy-efficient lighting, instant gas water heaters, a stormwater detention and retention system, on-site water filtration, natural cross ventilation, and a highly insulated building shell that rarely requires heating or cooling.
