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Twin houses look both inward and outward
By Sam Lubell
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The houses will be near replicas. Image courtesy Predock Frane.
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Los Angeles-based Hadrian Predock says he’s tired of the “clichéd, white-box” Midcentury Modern L.A. home.
As an alternative, he’s designing two almost-identical hillside residences in Pacific Palisades, California, that are still Minimalist, but are designed using the surrounding topography as their inspiration.
The 4,000-square-foot steel-frame houses, built of cedar with dark metal roofs, will blend into their environments, both in material, and in how their shapes echo their site’s incline. They will be located at the top of a steep hill overlooking a nearby valley and the Pacific Ocean.
But the views won’t be the architect’s only focus. “Traditionally these types of houses focus on the outside. We’re looking inside as well,” says Predock. Small courtyards within the house, paved with local stones, will draw light from above, and interior spaces will be built into exposed bedrock, forming a craggy wall. Large windows and decks frame views of the surrounding mountains.
The houses’ design also developed from combining computer diagrams formed around Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles zoning ordinances.
The houses’ owner will be the project contractor. He will live in one house and will rent out the other. Not quite identical, the homes will have very subtle differences in texture and in spatial arrangement.
May 2006 |
