PERISCOPE HOUSES

Los Angeles, CA: 2008

The project is comprised of a 1,750 SF single family house and accompanying 1,250 SF guesthouse, located on two substandard lots on a steeply sloping hillside. The extraordinarily small size of the side-by-side parcels called for maximizing use of the given zoning envelope that at the same time took advantage of the 180-degree-plus views the site affords. Because the two houses were to be built together, they were designed not as twins, but as parts of the same whole: a tube-like volume that opens like a periscope at both ends to reveal the living room of the main house at one end and guest house at the other. Between the two structures meanwhile, where sideyard setbacks did not permit construction, the hillside spills down nearly severing the tube (save for a single connecting retaining wall). While both houses occupy the entire footprint allowed within their setbacks, their floor plates are limited to only +/- 500 SF each -- enough to accommodate one room per floor. This led to vertically-stacked arrangement of 4 stories within a tight 36-foot height limit--the third level of which is almost entirely vacated to allow for parking, separating the living (top) level above from the bedrooms and office below. In order to keep the parking area obstruction-free, an outboard columnar support projects in front of the main house to support the underside of the cantilevered living room and outdoor terrace.

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