DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
Issue link: https://www.southbaydiggs.com/i/1509916
28 DIGS.NET | 10.20.23 A R C H I T E C T U R E + D E S I G N P R O F I L E | K LO P F A R C H I T E C T U R E structure into the landscape while its cedar- stained exterior, intended for warmth and timelessness, furthers blends house and surround. "Extending the same materials from the interior to the exterior, as well as the large floor to ceiling openings, are ways that we like to de-emphasize the threshold between inside and outside," the team says of their approach. "This is a modernist methodology that we employ in most of our designs where boundaries between the structure and its surroundings are blurred." The result is a dwelling with an easy and exquisite rapport between realms. Inside the home, living and private spaces are aligned along the axis of its primary view—a magnanimous outlook stretching from the San Francisco Bay Area to Mount Tamalpais to the Sonoma Valley—with mammoth sliding glass doors that extend the interior outward. Flow is the pervasive feel. Liberated from constraints, the open concept's living, dining, and kitchen areas stream seamlessly into each other. From the great room, which is backdropped by a breathless vista, one floats, without notice or calculation, out to the covered patio area with additional outdoor dining and living areas, an infinity pool and horizon beyond in a transition that is as graceful as it is reflexive. Private bedroom areas, meanwhile, take shape as individual suites or, more to the point, escapes, with bedrooms, reading rooms, closets, and baths. Floor to ceiling glass opens at least one slumbering chamber to the hum and beauty of nature while still providing the space privacy. Every aspect of the home's organically drawn interior design is meticulously considered for a low-key California chic. Highlighting warm natural tones and refined yet unpretentious materials, from white oak to Calacatta marble, the well-edited interior marches to the beat of modernist doctrine, combining contemporary furnishings, a few fantastic lighting fixtures, and a handful of memorable art pieces with discipline. Decorative drama finds no audience here; views are the spectacle. To that end is the architects' use of glass, employing the material as pristinely and strategically as a surgeon, making cuts in the façade to highlight and leverage the landscape, capturing it as not merely something to see, but to experience throughout. Quite memorably when it comes to the outdoor rock garden. Infused with a sense of Zen and hypnotically lit by sunbeams spilling through slats in the roof, the alcove evokes a mid-century modern staple: the courtyard. The rest of the exterior landscape is similarly minimal, marked by resilient plantings that can withstand the dryness and heat of wine country climes while mimicking the shrubby natural setting. "We were successful in allowing the architecture to highlight and focus on the surroundings more than anything else," the architects say in their final appraisal of the project. One that is best understood as a response to, and reflection of, the broader environment—bringing it beautifully into view. klopfarchitecture.com