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ROto Architects

Carlson-Reges Residence

This house was built by the owners with materials from their salvage yard. The architect and owners worked improvisationally and opportunistically with a pre-established spatial framework and a code of design-build.

One of the clients is a builder, the other breeds and trains show dogs and is active in the Los Angeles Arts community. The couple has lived for some time in what was oncean electric company cabling structure north of downtown Los Angeles. The stripped classical concrete and steel structure is surrounded by a yard that contains a collection of building materials and industrial artifacts collected from two generations of work and urban renovation. During that time the client/builder and his family have acquired considerable skill and experience in the renovation of large scaled industrial structures but prior to this project had not collaborated with a design architect.

The clients requested that their expanded collection of paintings and sculptures be accomodated to allow for occasional public showings, without compromising the privacy of their living space. The design addresses the acoustic and environmental problems associated with living in a large open space in the midst of an urban indistrial landscape. From the outset, the skills of the client who would construct the project informed the design process. We were interested in exploring scale and methods of construction which are typically well beyond the scope of residential construction and so priorities shifted to the possibilities of volume and scale rather than the complexity and refinement of details.

The process began with a model and drawing analysis of the dimensions and spaces

of the excisting site and structure and the relationship thay had to surrounding areas bounded by the central city, freeways, trains and mountains. The result of this exploration was a series of constructed volumetric elements; the shield protects the translucent kitchen and the interior from the strongest southern sun, blocks the noise and the dirt from the adjacent train switching yard and forms a protected vertical garden around an existing forty foot tall stand of bamboo. The ground floor is used as a semi-private garden and gallery spaces. A new exterior ground plane was created sixteen feet above grade and is continuous to an elevated lap pool. Cylindrical tanks from the client's materials yard were modified to make the pool that reflects the downtown skyline and a tower that acts as light monitor, viewing instrument, and hot-air exhaust, and which is topped by a small garden belvedere that is humidified by mists of water.

A three-dimensional geometric analysis was undertaken concurrent with the "experiential" modeling. Information generated from this analysis of existing conditions was layered with other information. The intention was to create a complex but singular volume to unify the separate elements being generated from the study. This complex and translational volume is supported by a wave-like truss system which springs from a simple structural frame. This frame bypasses the building shell to bear on six points, four on existing steel crane rails and two on the ground fifty feet below. Structurally, the new volume is completely independent of the existing shell.

The construction documents were minimal, with most of the required information coming from 3-dimensional models. All non-structural steel detailing occured on site in an improvisational fashion and was determined by the availability of materials and labor.

By maintaining a flexible approach to detailing, the project always moved forward. "Mistakes" were never removed or rebuilt, but simply became the basis for the next set of decisions. In many instances, ideas were tested full size.