The project is a 600 square foot vacation home in Mount Baldy
Canyon for a Hollywood producer. The site is beautiful surrounded
by nothing but nature with views towards the metropolis 40
miles away. The required spaces were one bedroom, one bathroom,
a kitchen and a living space. The site has a large ravine
in the middle of the canyon which cannot be built on. That only
left two options in my mind, build across the canyon or cantilever
out into the canyon. I chose the latter.
The project was started by looking at the aspects of film which culd be incorporated well in a home. The idea of projecting out into the canyon was similar to the way a camera projects out into space and frames
an image. The image framed at the end of this east facing, projected
concrete monocoque was of the sunrise. The program
of the home, although it is small, needed to be hierarchical. The
bedroom is at the helm of the home. The living space is at the
bottom of the stairs and the bathroom is underneath the stairs
with a large window to the canyon. The exterior patio is covered
by a skin which was inspired by the way knuckles work. It is
a hand, grown from the mountain onto the retaining wall, and
then out onto the cantilever holding it back from tumbling into
the canyon. All of the holes punched into this large concrete
form frame views of the mountains, the vast landscape beyond
the foothill, or the sky.