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Stradella House
1200 sq. ft. addition
With an existing house sited on flat ground above a canyon in Los Angeles, the clients were interested in taking better advantage of their breathtaking views of the Santa Monica Mountains, Stone Canyon Reservoir, and downtown Los Angeles via the addition of a new master suite and family room. The site proved to be both dynamic and difficult as we looked at options that would have placed the addition: on the hillside; in an excavation in their patio; or in two stories replacing the existing master suite.
competition (with Matt Brown and Amy Aswell)
Green Stop
roadside assist: we believe it important a ‘green stop’ function as part of the highway system. this approach provides several advantages over the “bucolic hideaway” strategy. when traditional rest stops separate themselves from the highway, they build in unnecessary isolation, creating potential safety hazards. visibility and connection become especially important when considering night time use. therefore we believe it important that the green stop be a place where you remain connected to the system and its population while receiving roadside assistance. the traditional separation of rest stops also indicates a disconnection between the living ecology and the transport network. we seek to reconnect these systems with the notion of ‘roadside assist’ applied to the highway itself through the integration of bioswales at each rest stop. as this prototype is replicated it begins to form a highway system filter, linking the entire highway system as a sustainable entity. the facilities themselves are harbored within a prefabricated module, which is reproducible, economical, and upgradeable. this mobile unit would be constructed centrally from universally recyclable metals, transported via the highway system it is destined to serve, then clad in panels of locally made materials and placed on site. the modules are then “plugged-in” to an existing infrastructure present at each individual site, minimizing the permanent built footprint . regional vegetation and landscape connections become the means of amplifying local context. the site infrastructure includes: on-site wastewater and greywater systems to offset irrigation demands for public green areas; photovoltaic arrays defray power needs; permeable paving, green roofs, and bioswales mitigate stormwater run-off and reduce heat islands. ‘roadside assist’ seeks to aid weary travelers and the highway system itself.
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