Inspiring home of the week: a sleek family home in California

The Barrington Residence features a grass covered roof and glass stairwells

The green, green grass of home: the property was designed to maximise indoor/outdoor living (Joe Fletcher)

Cut into the California hillside, this Brentwood family home has the hallmarks of the glitzy mid-century-modern era – with its asymmetric vistas and views of the Los Angeles skyline fit for Hollywood royalty.

Designed by Eric Rosen Architects, the property was inspired by the 1970’s Splitting architect-turned-artist Gordon Matta-Clark. Rosen chose to slice into the descending slope to create main level cavernous interiors that feel disconnected from the outside environment.

Concrete landings hover above a babbling water feature, to correspond with the home-owners’ (a couple with two children) desire to have a space that is both inside and outside. The roof of the home is covered in grass, while various staircases and balcony’s wrap around both the interior and exterior.

We spoke to Eric Rosen Architects to find out more.

Please tell us a little about your practice

We are an architecture and interior design practice in Culver City providing innovative solutions to both commercial and residential projects. Since its inception in 1992, the firm has focused on creative projects demanding a strong design sensibility and an attention to detail. Rather than placing focus on one particular building type, the office has concentrated on projects of varying types and scales that benefit from our rigorous process of design and exploration. Through this process, innovative ideas are conceived, tested and communicated through sketches, drawing, physical models and 3D computer modelling.

How would you sum with the project in five words?

Experiential, contextual, sculptural, dynamic, dramatic

What was the brief for this project?

The client came to us looking to rethink the existing single family home on the site, which they found dark and cavernous with little connection to the surrounding context and views. They wanted a single family home for a family of four with great light, views and a connection to the site.

What did you hope to solve as you designed this home?

We wanted to sculpt a home that was integrated with the site, maximising an indoor/outdoor living experience.

What makes this space unique?

This project was designed specifically for this site, context, orientation and our clients’ programmatic needs. The result is a unique form with spatial experiences that are tuned specifically for this family.

What was your inspiration for this project?

Besides the site and context and the client’s desire for an indoor/outdoor living experience afforded by the southern California climate, our inspiration was derived from noted artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting.

What was the toughest issue you encountered when this building was being designed and built?

We were both the architects and the construction managers on this house so we were rigorously involved throughout both design and construction. The toughest part of the construction process was working on a descending lot with little room to manoeuvre on the street side while making extremely deep cuts into the ground all while trying to ensure that all of the irregular components of the house came together exactly as planned. We had to start on the north at the existing pool area as we were keeping those foundations and, at the same time, on the south with the old guest house foundations as we were also keeping those foundations. In the middle, we needed to maintain an access road to bring equipment and materials in and out so we were essentially working our way from two sides concurrently towards the middle of the site and from the descending slope towards the street. As we came up and out, the two sides of the project had to marry at a very specific point – we were within a small fraction of an inch when it came together.

What do you wish you could change in hindsight?

Every project is a learning opportunity when designing unique custom homes such as this project. All of the cumulative lessons over our 25 years of practice play a role in our next work.

What sort of experience do you hope people using this space have?

All of the sculptural forms began with an intent to enhance the experience of the home owners and to connect their indoor living with the outdoor environment afforded by the site. One of the more interesting aspects of designing custom homes is, at a certain point, to set aside our vision and intent and to let the project begin to take on its own life with the owner.

Please add anything else you feel is important

There are many green components to this house:

• Radiant floor heating
• Airfloor ducting (a dome shaped air floor system, which was poured within the concrete floors so air flows under all of the floors thereby making the heating and cooling more efficient and quieter)
• Green roof and cool roofs
• Solar PV panels
• Solar water panels for the pool
• Geo-thermal field, which feeds ground source heat pumps for the HVAC system
• Passive cooling
• Earth sheltering