In Santa Monica, where architecture often enjoys informality, enhanced by sunshine and ocean breezes, Dub Studios has created a home as a “buen retiro” for an elderly New York couple seeking Californian sunshine and as a meeting spot for their entire large family.

The design of the “Bearing House” stems from the clients' desire for togetherness and domestic conviviality, as well as from their nostalgia for the architecture language of their home region, Upper State New York, which is reinterpreted and adapted here to the needs of contemporary life and the local climate.

The building, with its marked longitudinal layout, set on a narrow, long plot, is characterised by a solid “bearing” base (hence the name of the work) in exposed concrete, cast in rough wooden formwork, a leitmotif – both constructive and figurative – that recalls the type of massive structural masonry barns found among the pasturelands of Upstate New York.

In elevation, rigorous plastered volumes rise above this base, eroding into visual openings towards the garden and breaking down into overhangs and recesses to accommodate the different functional spaces.

The symbolic centrepiece of the composition is the “triumphal” dining room on the ground floor, overlooking the south-west garden and designed to accommodate thirty-two people, to which other daytime spaces (kitchen, living room and a small study) are added, while the three bedrooms are located on the upper level. With the garden lapping at the house on three sides, domestic life expands outdoors into open-air rooms surrounded by greenery, in sunken patios and on the green roof terrace.  

Inside, the spaces dotted with essential furnishings with an almost monastic feel, are warmed by the light wood finishes of the floors and by the immaculate wall surfaces, in contrast to the exposed raw concrete “bearing” base.

The building – the winner of an American Institute of Architects California (AIA) 2025 Residential Design Award Honour – aims to stand as a manifesto of environmental sustainability. Passive design techniques have made it possible to control the internal microclimate, reducing the environmental impact: from the study of natural lighting and ventilation flows, guaranteed by the positioning of courtyards, skylights and the light well adjacent to the embankment on the west side, to the presence of shading overhangs to control radiation on the glass surfaces; from the use of solar panels, to green roofing to improve insulation performance; from the planting of native species to promote biodiversity and ecological balance, to the rainwater collection and filtration system for irrigation.

The use of natural materials, local construction techniques and craftsmen – from locally sourced wood to traditional hand-applied exterior stucco, which is fireproof and particularly resistant to the marine climate – gives the building a genuine and durable character and strengthens the relationship between the house and its cultural and environmental context.