The project’s concept set out to reduce the massing of a rather large project, for it to lodge within the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. This 1940’s hallow post-war neighborhood has been transforming gradually, overtaken by recent developments that rely on size rather than spatial quality. The project on the other hand, set out to propose an example of what can be offered within the confines of stringent regulations.
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Global Future Design Awards 2022
RO54
Private Residential (Built)
Firm
Arshia Architects
Architect/Designer
Arshia Mahmoodi
Design Team
Arshia Mahmoodi (Design Principal) Xinlei Li (Project Manager) Yuheng Huang (Project Designer) Fang Cui (Project Designer)
Location
1254 Roberto Ln, Los Angeles, CA 90077
Country
United States
Photographer/Copyright
©Paul Vu ; Renee Parkhurst ; Yuheng Huang
This project engages an exercise in spatial relationships to accelerate the programs of the house. The cross section of the building was set as a split-level configuration in lieu of a traditional stacked story configuration, where floor plates are related only by means of vertical circulation. The plates form adjacencies, both visual and functional therefore allowing twice the utility of an otherwise dissected arrangement.
The design was informed by streamline automotive design, proposing every technology in the house to have exponent performance behind the scenes, allowing the architectural space to deliver a visual performance.
The design gently lands a dynamic building on top of a buried podium that replicates the natural topography that was once there. A central “void” was created between the split levels to allow bridging half-level stairs between the floors. This allows for sunlight and visual connection from the rooftop level to the base of the building.
The building sits on a basement podium that is intentionally buried as a vegetated mound, while daylighting out of the slope at the lower bedrooms with a courtyard, that also acts as the rainwater runoff filtration system for the entire site.
The project integrates the design with photovoltaic panels as well as an electricity storage system. The project meets or exceeds stringent California green building and energy conservation standards such as low-flow plumbing systems, rainwater filtration, solar panel integration, high efficiency building envelope and glazing, HERS rating of the mechanical system and more.