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 A A D E S I G N
court to the courtyard garden and
beyond. Fundamentally important to
all parties was that the architecture be
sensitive to nature—to try and, as Tran
puts it, "stay out of the land as much as
possible, but to work with the hillside."
Tree placement, plant selection and the
use of gray water from the house to help
irrigate the landscape were all facets of
the exterior scheme.
Tasked with creating intimate spaces that
still have a sense of openness fell to KAA
Design's Jerry Williams, a landscape
architect who used native and climate-
appropriate plantings that served both a
practical and aesthetic purpose. With the
overall aim to tie all the elements together
in order to create environs of rich
character, Williams selected plants to
provide that landscape color and texture,
scaled, a harmonious blend of natural
and manmade environments.
This is the point. "One of the things that
we bring to the table is a holistic design
approach that really looks at the project
as not only a house on a property or a hill,
in particular, but a house integrated with
the hill," says Duan Tran, partner and
principal architect at KAA Design. "How
will the architecture and landscape come
together to create an indoor/outdoor
experience?"
The answer is swift and assured: "We
do this collaboratively," says Tran. In
working together from the outset, a KAA
Design project not only has a sense
of aesthetic, but a visual logic as well.
With Tower Grove Drive, the collective
approach produced a fluidity not only
felt, but pervasively so, from the motor
44 DIGS.NET
| 7.12.24
