The primary design challenges were to reconsider the building structures and allow shared use by an extended family while maintaining varying levels of privacy and increase the amount of filtered daylight available throughout the main house and apartment.
The main house had to remain within its original zoning envelope at the rear of the site. An eight-foot addition to the courtyard increased the building from 1,700 to 2,300 square feet and allowed for a complete reorganization of the interior spaces. Living spaces increased to a total of three bedrooms and three baths. The roof of a dank rear room was removed, allowing for an outdoor dining courtyard that opens to the kitchen and study. The two-story façade facing the courtyard is entirely glazed, which in turn is shaded by a folding, perforated metal skin that rests on an aluminum exoskeleton.
This perforated skin and supporting aluminum armature is mirrored across the courtyard by a folding enclosure surrounding the garage apartment. Only these building surfaces extend into the courtyard and float above the courtyard. Primarily designed as sun shades, they provide privacy and filtered natural light into the main living spaces of the house and apartment. In addition they form the support structure for balconies that extend from the master bedroom of the main house and the apartment to allow family members to see each other across the property. In the evening these garden lanterns float above the lush courtyard.
Daly Genik Architects was established in 1990 by Kevin Daly and Chris Genik, and it is based Santa Monica, CA.
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