Architecture studio Walker Workshop claims to have “taken a hillside apart and place it back collectively” to create the subterranean base of this house in Southern California, which is topped by glass-walled living spaces and an infinity pool.
Named Oak Pass House, the property was developed by Los Angeles-based Walker Workshop for a concert violinist who needed a quiet area exactly where he can host personal classical-music performances.
The building is situated on leading of a ridge, just a couple of hundred metres from a guesthouse that was constructed so the client could move onto the residence and oversee the main house’s building.
The site’s organic features – like in excess of 130 protected oak trees – informed a layout that sits lightly on the hillside, despite the home’s 8,000 square feet (280 square metres) of floor area.
The generous dimensions have been accomplished by submerging the lower storey containing the bedrooms into the ground and covering them with a planted roof, including herbs that are accessible from the kitchen.
“It was a crucial aspect of the style to make the huge house appear as diminutive and sewn into the landscape as possible,” architect Noah Walker informed Dezeen.
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“Even although we desired to make the property seem nestled into the hillside, it basically meant taking the hillside apart and putting it back together again.”
The major living locations are located on the upper storey to maximise views from the house. Total-height glazed surfaces make sure uninterrupted vistas and additional lessen the house’s visual mass.
A paved pathway prospects from the forecourt to a door set in the glazed walls of a reception area, which incorporates stairs descending to the bedroom level.
The reception room leads to the living and dining area on one side and the kitchen on the other, which cantilevers above a terrace.
Living areas on the upper level open onto landscaped outside spaces, such as a poolside patio available from the residing space.
An infinity pool that stretches along the edge of this terrace extends beneath the boughs of one particular of the biggest oak trees on the web site.
An angular courtyard on the reduce level is flanked on two sides by a corridor connecting the numerous bedrooms organized around its perimeter.
Sliding doors can be retracted to open this room up to the courtyard, making it possible for natural light and air to reach the submerged spaces.
“Since it is developed into the hillside, the residence tends to stay cooler,” stated Walker. “And the comprehensive green roof limits the heat-island impact.”
“We also employed stacking and pocketing doors anytime attainable,” Walker added. “The Southern California climate allows us to open the home to the outside factors most months of the 12 months.”
Due to the variations in height across the site, the bedrooms emerge from the side of the slope and are lined with terraces that appear out towards the landscape in various instructions.
A wine keep, auditorium, gymnasium and lounge are amid the other spaces accommodated on the house’s decrease degree.
The use of structural concrete for the majority of the house’s building enabled huge column-free of charge spans.
Flooring on the upper storey is produced from limestone, although the decrease-storey floors are walnut wood.
“The complete decrease level is structural concrete, which provides the sense that one particular is strolling into the house and standing on solid ground,” said Walker. “This was an critical effect that I am glad we maintained.”
Photography is by Joe Fletcher.
Venture credits:
Architect and contractor: Walker Workshop
Structural engineer: John Labib & Associates
Civil engineer: Barbara L Hall
Exterior windows and doors: Fleetwood
Faucets: Dornbracht, MGS
Sinks and toilets: Duravit
Bathtub: Kohler
Appliances: Meile, Capital
Pizza oven: Mugnaini
Property Automation and Shades: Crestron
Casework: GL Veneer
Cabinet pulls: Rajack
Panelling: GL Veneer
Roofing methods: Fibertite
Door handles and locks: Rocky Mountain
Site plan 
Ground floor plan 
Initial floor plan 
Section Dezeen
