Nameless Architects embeds concrete home into Los Angeles hillside

Native studio Nameless Architects has accomplished a residence with a concrete plinth that cantilevers off a mountainside in Los Angeles.

The Olancha Drive home was completed in 2022 within the Mount Washington district of Northeast Los Angeles. It was designed in response to the location’s steep angle – which reaches 45 levels in some areas – and the views afforded by the vantage level.

The hillside parcel challenged the design workforce to restrict the horizontal footprint – balancing the 1,000-square-foot (93 sq. metre) home on friction piles pushed into the earth. The workforce, in flip, stacked the areas top-down.

“The sequence of house and program is vertical not horizontal, which is an inversion of typical residential expertise in California that blends inside and outdoors,” the Nameless Architects workforce advised Dezeen.

From the road, the home is appropriately “nameless” and personal.

The house’s storage is on the highest flooring, functioning like a big field truss wrapped in a display of vertical gray wooden. A tunnel-like staircase leads all the way down to the “entrance yard” – which is a walkable roof terrace house, outlined by a black metallic railing.

Framed by V-shaped columns, a trapezoidal swimming pool is tucked beneath the cantilevered storage. Two sq. skylights within the deck open the principle stage to the solar.

The primary stage seems as a floating field wrapped in white metallic and is linked to the hillside by a concrete mass.

“Through the use of solely metal and concrete, the development strategies and supplies are associated extra intently to business constructing as an alternative of typical residential wooden building,” the workforce defined, selecting to show the construction, in addition to important electrical and plumbing infrastructure, as a visible part for the inside design.

The residing areas of the one-bedroom home act as one giant room with moveable partitions and sliding doorways dividing the general public areas from the bed room and media room. A wall of folding glass doorways opens the interiors to a balcony that runs the size of the home.

For the reason that house has no facet home windows, the entire areas are oriented towards the Los Angeles skyline.

Whereas accessed from above, the pool turns into the point of interest of the principle stage with a window from the kitchen into the water. The window brings mild into the interiors and breaks up the strong concrete wall.

“Including a window allowed the pool to change into a function even when it was not getting used for recreation, enjoying into the will for parts of the home to be dual-purpose,” the workforce mentioned.

“Twin-purpose parts are essential in small areas. If parts of the design can carry out a number of features, then the house will really feel bigger as a result of it’s able to doing extra.”

The uncooked structural parts have been offset by pure wooden partitions and cupboards and white oak panels which are “plain sliced to provide the wooden a extra natural high quality.”

Chosen by Sarah Rosenhaus Inside Design, the gentle furnishings and materials designate a color for every house and add heat and texture.

The basement stage incorporates barrels for rainwater assortment.

Close by, Nameless Architects cantilevered one other home off a hillside, however the studio additionally encircled a mature cypress tree with the bed room and wrapped the house with cedar. In Mexico, structure studio LBR&A cantilevered a steel-clad home to minimise the influence on the panorama.

The pictures is by Taiyo Wantanabe and Marcia Prentice.

Mission credit:

Structure: Nameless Architects
Inside design: Sarah Rosenhaus Inside Design