VENICE BEACH HOUSE
Year Completed: 2019
Size: Sq. Ft 5,625
Size: Meters 523
Structural Engineer: The Office of Gordon L. Polon
Soils Engineer: Geotech Services
Waterproofing Consultant: Roofing & Waterproofing Forensics, Inc.
Lighting Designer: Oculus Light Studio
Energy Consultant: Newton Energy & Newton Architects
Civil Engineer: Wynn Engineering, Inc.
Landscape Designer: Bent Grass Landscape Design
Contractor: Sarlan Builders, Inc.

The airy Venice Beach home was designed with the intent of blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces to achieve a warm, tranquil home. The design began with its exterior, to ensure the family could enjoy the perks of Southern California’s year-round mild climate. The general sense of warmth throughout the home is driven by the use of natural materials like wood. By contrast, the concrete block walls give the home an almost midcentury sensibility while clearly creating a dialogue with the wood and other earth tones. Woven into the home’s design are three ‘gardens,’ all varying in scale and function. The larger garden creates drama, while two smaller gardens allow for intimacy and moments of pause. A series of parallel datum walls constructed of concrete blocks anchor the gardens and organize the interior spaces around the exterior space.

“With this home, the clients were open to us guiding them toward the larger ideas and given Southern California’s temperate climate it was important to make spaces where they could enjoy the outdoors from anywhere within the home,” said Founding Principal David Montalba. “It’s been particularly rewarding to see the home become part of the family’s framework, and to see them enjoying its modern warmth and landscape.”

The main gathering spaces (living room, family room, kitchen, and pool house) feature sliding glass doors adjacent to cement block walls. When fully opened, interior and exterior spaces are completely contiguous, which supports a tranquil energy and warmth throughout the home. The materiality of the concrete block walls evokes a sense of heaviness and provide a visual, monolithic mass between floors while anchoring the horizontal planes of the home in the landscape. Wood siding wraps the perimeter and sits atop the cement walls, lifting and lightening the massing to create a welcoming balance between earthy and modern.

Montalba Architect’s wellness-based philosophy is apparent in its commercial, residential, hospitality, urban and retail projects. The same near-tangible tranquillity of the Venice Beach home can also be found in other residential projects, completed in 2019.