A SOARING STEEL HOUSE RESTS GENTLY ON THE CALIFORNIA LANDSCAPE.
Seen in profile, perched on the hillside overlooking the ocean in Southern California, this house looks almost birdlike, with outstretched wings and a long tail. The wings turn out to be the upswept roof of the main living areas, and the tail is the roof of a long passage that leads from the front door. Though the roof lines are entirely functional, for the house’s architect, Tom Kundig, the avian analogy is an apt one. Kundig, a partner in the Seattle firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen, says that he wanted the house to be “a small building that landed lightly on the landscape,” much like the raptors he had seen hovering over the hills. Kundig is not stranger to breathtaking scenery—many of his houses occupy sites where nature played a big role in the
Top: A panel above the living room fireplace slides up to reveal a television. Bottom Left: The entry's dutch doof lets in breezes but keeps wildlife out. Bottom Right: Late-day sun floods the kitchen-dining area. Opposite Top: At the other end of the house, a wide roof covers the glass-and-stell box that contains the living areas.
design – but as he says, “I just about fainted” when he first saw the land these clients had bought. The owners wanted a “no-nonsense” house that would allow them to live the indoor-outdoor life for which this part of the county is famous, and they were also conscious of the area’s vulnerability to drought and fire – all of which are reflected in Kundig’s design. (Elizbeth Bianchi Conkilin was the project manager for the house.) the house is shaped like a T: the stem, formed by the 100-foot-long entryway and glanced by two guest rooms and a garage, leads to a glass-and steel box that contains the living and dining area and the master bedroom. A pool sits directly in line with the living room (to cool it by evaporation if needed) and is partly shaded by the flaring roof that covers this end of the house. By covering the front door and hallway, the, roof’s
roof’s “tail” protects the house from the sun, channels prevailing breezes to minimize the need for airconditioning and can collect rainwater as well. “The roof is one of the hardest-working parts of the house,” Kundig says. Steel is one of the architect’s signature materials, but in this relatively arid landscape, it gives the house a toughness that is unusual evenpy Kundig’s standards. It also helps protect the house from fire, as do the sliding, perforated metal screens that shade the ocean side from the late-day sun. The spare, concrete floored interiors only add to the feeling that the house is an elegantly minimalist shelter from which to admire the landscape – that is, whenever, you’re not actually in it. But the point of a house like this is that you don’t need more. Or, as Kundig says of his clients: “They’re in a big landscape. Why would they need a big house?”
