Open Form Architecture Blog

Exis­ting house

The Box House re­pla­ces one of se­ve­ral California-modern ho­mes built in a 1950’s plan­ned de­ve­lop­ment in Por­tola Va­lley, Ca­li­for­nia. This neigh­borhood was la­ced with wal­king trails and ma­ture lands­cape that hel­ped se­pa­rate the clo­sely si­ted dwe­llings that were ba­sed on a style ce­le­bra­ting inside/outside qua­li­ties of li­ving. Within this cons­truc­ted en­vi­ron­ment, fa­bri­ca­ted on con­ven­tio­nal mid-twentieth cen­tury no­tion of “mo­dern li­ving,” the house found itself in di­rect dia­lo­gue with past and con­tem­po­rary no­tions of lands­cape, dwe­lling, and the func­tions of the “mo­dern” home.

The in­te­rac­tion of pu­blic and pri­vate space within the home — al­ways a pro­gram­ma­tic con­cern — was heigh­te­ned in this case. Yet the clients also de­si­red pri­vacy from the su­rroun­ding neigh­borhood while ope­ning the house to de­si­ra­ble lands­cape ele­ments. The cha­llenge was then to pro­vide pri­vacy within the house from the ou­tside neigh­borhood while allo­wing for free flo­wing pu­blic spa­ces. Pu­blic spa­ces en­gage and create an ac­tive dia­lo­gue with both dis­tance lands­cape views and the tem­pe­rate Northern Ca­li­for­nian climate.

Street fa­cade, Photo by Tim Griffith

The so­lu­tion that emer­ged was a 2900 square foot house fo­cu­sed on the archi­tec­tu­ral ar­ti­cu­la­tion of its pu­blic and pri­vate spa­ces as well as its ma­te­rials. An ele­va­ted vo­lume of be­drooms is con­tai­ned within a wood clad box. The box is ro­ta­ted on the site an­ne­xing the space of an ad­ja­cent ea­se­ment. Held above the pu­blic spa­ces of the house, the be­drooms are lo­ca­ted re­la­tive to the view in and out to the site. Hill­side views are fra­med while the views to the neigh­borhood are bloc­ked and fil­te­red by the de­tai­ling of the wood screen.

The wood box is struc­tu­red by a se­ries of li­near site walls that stretch the length of the site. These richly co­lo­red plas­ter piers create a dis­tinct di­rec­tio­nal field ac­ross the site that be­co­mes the walls of the li­ving, di­ning and stu­dio spa­ces on the lo­wer le­vel. An in­fill win­dow and pa­nel sys­tem com­ple­tes the enc­lo­sure while allo­wing for large ope­nings to the gar­den and te­rrace areas.

In the end, the Box House res­ponds to its in­di­vi­dual site and clients’ needs, as well as to the ty­pi­cal su­bur­ban con­di­tions. Ove­rall, the pu­blic and pri­vate spa­ces of the house come together.

Sec­tion and Plan