pacific palisades | 2
controlled transparency = all rooms with a view
design objective
Creating a sustainable home over very steep terrain balanced out with delicate difinition of space
Overview

  • typesingle family dwelling
  • year | size2001 | 3,030 sf
  • locationpacific palisades, California
  • statuscompleted 2003

project statement
Where livable minimalism and controlled transparency actually started

3 BR, 4 BA hillside house within the California coastal zone, including 2 car garage and studio. The home is equipped with passive sustainable devices and features open living area, summer and winter decks, as well as a service dumbwaiter from the garage to the top level; Western exposure, utilizing a truly spectacular ocean view from every room.
The home is designed and built to fit the specific lot. The sustainable features create easy and balanced maintenance: the house is well built into the terrain, which conditions the rear part of the space, the stairwell has an operable, humidity-sensing skylight, venting windwards, which naturally drafts the hot air out. Carefully planned cross ventilation with low operable intakes and high discharges aerates the front the of the house, while the built-in exterior wood louvres cast a solid shade summer time and let energy in during the winter.

project statement (cont)

The exterior becomes part of the interior environment all around the house. Framing the view works in every aspect as a kinetic art piece; materials are natural and easy to maintain and adapt to different levels during day and night. For instance, the rear portion of the main space has green-gray slate finish, which complements its color as a secondary color layer to the warm maple wood flooring, which in its turn bounces off the deep blue dusk storefront ocean view.
Besides aesthetics, the home functions like a well built machine for living - from the convenience of a dumbwaiter to the kitchen | BBQ passthrough. Spatial portions of the main loft space are 'delicately defined' vie soffits, which also house AC, electrical and plumbing ducts.

The house was design | built by PAA studio and earned awards and numerous publications all over the globe.

construction objective
Wrapping up hillside construction with 35 piles in under 18 months
Just about every design decision architect Ivo Venkov made on this project — the home (and office) he shares with his wife and fellow architect, Rossi Venkov — related back to the site, a steep hillside overlooking the Pacific.
Residential architect 2005 merit award custom | 3,500 sf or less