The transformation once an overgrown yard and open pool deck now a habitable destination space for swimmers and non-swimmers alike. In a quiet natural setting the pool house is located at a mid-century modern home in Los Gatos.
John Klopf is a licensed architect over 24 years in the field. He is the Founding Principal of Klopf Architecture, which he founded in 2001 after working for a few years at other firms. John, along with his wife and their two sons, lives in San Francisco and enjoys walking his dogs to work or biking to work whenever possible.
John was born in Cleveland Ohio, and is a graduate of both Harvard (Bachelor, 1993) and Berkeley (Master of Architecture, 2000). While at Berkeley, he won the highly competitive Branner travel fellowship for nine months of fully-paid independent architectural study in Japan, Europe, and Scandinavia. While at Harvard he studied abroad for one semester in Nanjing, China.
In addition to practicing architecture, John has taught design at USF (the University of San Francisco) as an adjunct professor, taught introductory design classes at Berkeley as a lecturer and graduate student instructor, and managed a major sustainability research project for the architecture department at Berkeley.
Today architectural practice consumes all of John’s professional time. He focuses on modernist homes, green and net-zero energy homes, and mid-century modern buildings. He is excited about the completion of Klopf Architecture’s first net-zero energy modern house and looks forward to working on more modern zero-net energy houses.
This winter residence, located on the Atlantic coast of Florida, is part of a planned residential community with specific guidelines regulating the exterior design of the buildings to be “Anglo-Caribbean” in character. Our brief was to create a bright, modernist experience for the interior and courtyard while observing the detailed architectural rules of the development. Our response was to subdue the traditional forms as much as allowable, resulting in a mannerist approach to the envelope of the house, and to create an interior with articulated views to the exterior and flush with natural light. The water of the pool and the geometry of the piazza-like courtyard become integral to the experience of the interior through the use of full-height expanses of glass against the living areas of the house.
Established in Chicago in 1989, Brininstool + Lynch has been bringing rigor, vision, and elegance to diverse projects since its founding. The work is firmly rooted in the proud architectural legacy of Chicago; it unabashedly celebrates its kinship with the rigorous modernism of Mies van der Rohe, as well as its sympathy for Frank Lloyd Wright’s marriage of building and landscape. And, in the pragmatic Chicago tradition, Brininstool + Lynch is a firm whose work is as much driven by process as it is by product. The result is architecture that is as enduring and timeless as it is graceful and powerful.
When the eventual owners first visited the existing Alan Taniguchi house in Austin’s Westlake Hills, they knew right away this was the home they wanted to live in. Sited high in the hills, the original house was designed with balcony/deck access in every single room, opening up to the nature and tranquility just minutes away from downtown Austin. The 90’s home, however, desperately needed an update as well as an addition to accommodate their needs.
The remodel and addition respects the strong qualities of the existing structure and site, while enhancing it and supplementing it with additional development. The renovation portion includes a complete update of interior and exterior finishes to achieve a fresh aesthetic with clean lines. Wood and stone compliment the freshly-painted white stucco from the outside, while the interior finishes are kept simple to accentuate the sweeping views of the rolling hills. The design reworks the kitchen area for an articulated yet open kitchen/dining experience, and features flush panel walnut cabinets, white Silestone countertops waterfall edge island, and sleek Wolf appliances.
As a film producer/editor from Los Angeles, the husband needed a workspace that could be separated from the domestic life. A freestanding structure was added which acts as both a studio and a pool house. The new live/work space defines the southern edge of the pool with adjacent hot tub and BBQ area, squaring up the courtyard which was also re-designed to suit the family’s lifestyle and act as the unifying element between the buildings. The additional structure is strategically positioned to frame views to the pool, the hills, and the cactus-filled slope in the back. A wood-clad accent wall extends from the wood deck, further emphasizing the indoor-outdoor connection, with a sequence of covered patios connecting the addition to the main house. The intention is to be as much a platform to experience the surrounding landscape as it is a container to enable the flow of daily work and live functions.
A native of Austin, Matt Fajkus holds a Master in Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he completed his thesis work with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo. Before going independent in 2010 and establishing MF Architecture, Fajkus achieved significant experience in architectural practice. While working for the world-renowned firm Foster + Partners in London for several years, he worked on the design of numerous high-profile, international large-scale projects. Starting at firms in 1998, he also worked on numerous small-scale award-winning projects while with Max Levy Architects in Dallas, Brinkley Sargent Architects, and Julie Snow Architects in Minneapolis. In 2012, Fajkus was awarded two AIA National Emerging Professional Awards.
In addition to leading MF Architecture, Fajkus is a Tenured Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, where he teaches courses in design, technology, daylighting and integrated sustainability. In 2013 he was recognized with the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award – the highest teaching honor awarded by the entire school system. Additionally in 2013, Fajkus was presented with the Faculty Scholarship Award for Innovative Practice, and the ACSA/AIAS National New Faculty Teaching Award in 2012. He has co-authoring a book titled Architectural Science and the Sun, which is currently under contract with Routledge Publishers.
Fajkus is a LEED Accredited Professional and a licensed architect in the State of Texas. Fajkus was named the winner of the Engineering, Architecture and Design category at the 17th Austin Under 40 Award in 2015, and the winner of AIA Austin’s Emerging Professional Achievement Honor Award in 2017.
Klopf Architecture and Outer space Landscape Architects designed a new warm, modern, open, indoor-outdoor home in Los Altos, California. Inspired by mid-century modern homes but looking for something completely new and custom, the owners, a couple with two children, bought an older ranch style home with the intention of replacing it.
John Klopf is a licensed architect over 24 years in the field. He is the Founding Principal of Klopf Architecture, which he founded in 2001 after working for a few years at other firms. John, along with his wife and their two sons, lives in San Francisco and enjoys walking his dogs to work or biking to work whenever possible.
John was born in Cleveland Ohio, and is a graduate of both Harvard (Bachelor, 1993) and Berkeley (Master of Architecture, 2000). While at Berkeley, he won the highly competitive Branner travel fellowship for nine months of fully-paid independent architectural study in Japan, Europe, and Scandinavia. While at Harvard he studied abroad for one semester in Nanjing, China.
In addition to practicing architecture, John has taught design at USF (the University of San Francisco) as an adjunct professor, taught introductory design classes at Berkeley as a lecturer and graduate student instructor, and managed a major sustainability research project for the architecture department at Berkeley.
Today architectural practice consumes all of John’s professional time. He focuses on modernist homes, green and net-zero energy homes, and mid-century modern buildings. He is excited about the completion of Klopf Architecture’s first net-zero energy modern house and looks forward to working on more modern zero-net energy houses.
The opportunity to live simultaneously in the center of the city and in an isolated refuge presented a powerful circumstance for this family of four. The house emphasizes a dynamic spatial sequence while also creating an abstract backdrop for the serendipity of light, reflection, circumstance and view.
An unmitigated roof defines a precinct for living and creates continuity throughout the property while a delicate custom-glazed window wall, accentuated by monolithic corner glazing, connects the interior to the outdoors. Inhabitation is here defined between a lush front courtyard and a dynamic expanse of nature behind. A magnificent live oak with an unusually tall trunk allowed for adjustment of the steep grade. The ubiquitous wood ceiling opens to allow the tree to pass through and an ipe deck permits the penetration of water. A second opening in the ceiling invites light and rain deep into the core of the house.
Alterstudio Architecture, LLP of Austin, Texas is a full service architecture and design firm known for its intellect in design, inventiveness, craftsmanship, and details. The work is rooted in deep-seated virtues of architecture – generous space making, shrewd manipulation of day-lighting, and meticulous attention to detail. The heightening of direct human experience and the framing of the complex circumstances of their situations are at the core of each project. more
CONTACT
Alterstudio Architecture
Cambridge Tower
1801 Lavaca Street Suite #106
Austin, Texas 78701
2016 Residential Architect Design Award from Architect magazine, and a 2017 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies
Located in a land conservancy, a collection of wood-clad cubes orient toward a pond at the bottom of a sloped site. These eight forms touch the ground lightly and follow the topography of the land, linked by glass enclosed hallways. Their simple shapes are strong silhouettes in an agricultural landscape, organized in a shifting grid akin to agricultural plots in the area. The slatted weathered hemlock cladding is a nod to the utilitarian barn structures that dot the local landscape. From the drive approach, the house gives little away, solid and almost bunker-like with entry flanked by a concrete wall and high clerestory. Entering through a glass “bridge” allows a glimpse of the pond beyond. Designed as a remote working studio for a photographer, the single room structures are divided by function—live, work, sleep. A detached pair of cubes houses a photography studio and darkroom. Living, dining and bedrooms comprise another cluster, centered around a shared outdoor space. There is a porosity to the interior world of this retreat. Glass hallways link the boxes and transform into open air bridges. Full-height picture windows and ventilation openings align for expansive views to the landscape. The result is privacy between the different programmatic elements in each cube, with a visual layering of space as the land is slowly revealed.
The North Fork Bluff House is a modular prefab home used as a multigenerational summer retreat for three siblings, their families, and their parents. The design prioritizes the owners’ request for efficiency and flexibility to accommodate any number of family members throughout the season. The home is composed of four modular units that were fabricated in Scranton, Pennsylvania then shipped and set in place at the home’s site overlooking a bluff to the Long Island Sound.
Upon arrival, two grassy berms flank the drive, providing privacy from the neighbors on the residential cul-de-sac. The North Fork Bluff House has an informal relationship to the street compared to the adjacent homes in that there is not an obvious front door. However, a bridge from the gravel autocourt to the house signifies approach and permits the earth to slope down to large windows in the basement playroom for capturing natural light.
Two of the modules contain four equitably sized bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. The other two modules are combined to form the home’s entry, kitchen, dining, and living space with a media room at one end and a music room at the other. The living space opens fully on the north side via full height sliding glass doors onto a large pool deck. A built-in barbeque and shaded outdoor dining area allow the living space to expand when the whole family is present.
Privacy was equally important at the pool deck where views toward the bluff are the primary focus. The pool is positioned such that a bedroom wing acts as a barrier from a bordering property, and a cedar slat wall screens a neighbor’s house on the opposite side. The gray and black cement board panels were selected for their durability to minimize maintenance. The cedar slats intermittently wrap the perimeter, softening the masculine palette and dissolving the façade as they transform from siding to screens and railings.
The modules are built above a basement that contains a playroom and two bunkrooms for the kids. A large roof deck, accessed from exterior stairs on either side, acts as an additional floor for outdoor living, lounging, and playing with spectacular views toward the water. A large trellis provides a shaded seating area around a fireplace. Over the bedroom wings, artificial turf ‘green’ roofs provide both a putting green for the grandfather and a bocce court.
RESOLUTION: 4 ARCHITECTURE is an internationally published and highly acclaimed ten-person firm, completing projects in the residential, commercial, and public realms. Founded in 1990 by Joseph Tanney and Robert Luntz, RES4 is dedicated to addressing 21st century conditions through intelligent architecture and design. The firm consciously works to enhance sustainable practices that address the current and long-term challenges facing our dynamic communities. Through iterative investigation, RES4 works to shape the palpable, illuminate the obscure, and understand the interface of architecture, its users, and its context.
A professional couple purchased a two-acre wooded site in an exclusive neighborhood where traditional houses with grand entrances oriented to the street are typical. The clients desired a modern house providing California-style indoor-outdoor living – to the degree possible in Houston’s harsh climate, where summers are hot and humid and winters are wet. The mostly one-story plan takes advantage of the large site and creates strong connections to the outdoors with large expanses of glass interspersed with limestone masses. The couple opted for privacy by installing a driveway to locate their house deep within the flat property, making it invisible from the road. Dining and entertaining areas feature floor-to-ceiling glass pivot doors. The master bedroom, master bath and study all open out to secluded gardens. A two-story children’s wing with playroom, music room and study area overlooks a double-height family great room. Summer heat and heavy rainfall are managed with deep roof overhangs and slatted sunscreens shielding glazed surfaces. Materials included Texas limestone and Rheinzink, with poured concrete floors and custom back-painted glass cabinets indoors. At the entrance court, a large Rheinzink wall which morphs into the garage doors separates guest parking from the house, ensuring tranquility in the house and gardens.
All images courtesy of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
Led by Partners STEVEN EHRLICH, FAIA; TAKASHI YANAI, FAIA; PATRICIA RHEE, AIA; MATHEW CHANEY, AIA; and supported by eight Principals, Associate Principals and Associates, EYRC Architects’ design philosophy starts with a profound respect for a building’s inhabitants. This humanistic approach, referred to as MULTICULTURAL MODERNISM, has permeated the firm’s culture since the beginning, informing every creation and every interaction.
Honored with the AIA NATIONAL FIRM AWARD in 2015, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (formerly Ehrlich Architects) is a versatile practice that has earned an international reputation for design excellence and an exemplary professional culture. Founded in 1979 as a tiny residential studio, the Los Angeles-based firm is a 40 member team that has mastered building types ranging in scale from houses to courthouses, including libraries, university centers, corporate and government facilities. EYRC Architects has been recognized with more than 150 awards including nine national AIA awards, and the title of AIA California Council Firm of the Year in 2003. more
Channeling the spirit of the home’s original designer, the late Joseph Esherick, daylight and landscape were the primary objectives of this contemporary transformation. Central to the design is a multi-storied interior garden atrium that captures outdoor space within the home’s interior and pulls daylight deep into the spaces within. At the rear, a new lower level physically connects the interior to the landscape as the façade reorients both indoor and outdoor spaces toward the views beyond while editing neighboring structures for mutual privacy. Earth and sky, heavy and light, is reinforced through materials of concrete, wood, glass, steel and diffused light.
An existing nondescript 1980’s hillside home on a spectacular site was transformed with critical concern for the preservation and optimization of panoramic ocean views. The vehicular approach, orientation and entry sequence are choreographed to capitalize on the site conditions and view opportunities.
Structural reinforcement of the terrain allowed for the conceptual overlay of program, including an office/exercise room level, sleeping level, and living/entertaining level are all tucked within the hillside. An elegant yet casual palette of natural materials, textures, and rich details supports a connection between the interior and exterior spaces.
Dan Brunn, AIA, founded his Los Angeles-based firm, Dan Brunn Architecture, in 2005. Widely published, Dan’s work includes all retail, hospitality, cultural, and residential projects. The architect utilizes provocative spatial choreography to harmonize light with volume. Inspired by the Bauhaus architecture of his native Tel Aviv, he reinterprets Modernist principles in minimalist designs for living, shopping, and dining. Named a “Rising Star” by Architectural Digest, Dan’s portfolio includes furniture design that addresses the needs of living room, bedroom, and bath with highly functional, sophisticated, and streamlined solutions. Learn more
CONTACT
Dan Brunn Architecture
6363 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 503
Los Angeles, CA 90048
info@danbrunn.com
Our client’s “dream house” is designed specifically for the Venice lifestyle. These indoor-outdoor spaces take advantage of every inch of an extremely narrow lot. Every room opens onto the outdoors, making the home feel like a garden pavilion. Minimal but elegant landscaping in the side yards maximizes the feeling of openness.
A long, thin swimming pool and infinity-edge spa carry the feeling of expansiveness all the way to the guest house at the back of the lot. The house features the same kind of continuity. A concrete floor begins outside the front entry, and extends all the way through the house to the pool deck. Plaster walls are tinted the same color as the floor. Sliding glass doors between the central entertaining space and the pool disappear completely behind the exterior walls when completely open. The second floor is composed of two folded white planes, each containing a bedroom suite. They interlock at the central staircase, a dramatic and airy vertical space with views of the double-height outdoor dining area. The second floor is composed of two folded white planes, each containing a bedroom suite. They interlock at the central staircase, a dramatic and airy vertical space with views of the double-height outdoor dining area.
The architecture on this residence for a young couple is a study in strong simple composition and materiality with an emphasis on craft. The massing defines solid and void, captures natural light, and connects the indoors with the landscape, seeking to ‘experience the outdoors from within.’The ground floor volumes wrapped in an elongated hand-fired brick, emphasizing the horizontality of the architecture that lays solidly on the land. Bronze-trimmed ceiling planes slide between the brick masses, and floor-to-ceiling glazed openings are captured by thin-profiled bronze frames. In contrast to the grounded brick volumes, the second floor is clad in stainless steel panels and oversized aluminum-framed windows. The lightness and openness of the second floor is nestled among the oak-tree canopies of the site.
A custom-designed element is the steel mesh screen that wraps around to enclose the kitchen for privacy, separating this from the more public “guest hosting” areas adjacent. The steel screen slides along a track embedded into the teak slatted ceiling and disappears into the pantry when retracted.At the basement level, a wine cellar and tasting room open to a sunken landscaped courtyard. A grand stairwell of floating stone steps connects the three levels. A freestanding structure set deep back into the site is a zen-like fitness/yoga studio as well as a guesthouse with a kitchenette”. An exterior trellis connects the main house with the backhouse and studio, and helps frame the backyard and surrounding landscape which integrates California native plant species, grasses and trees to compliment the materiality, geometries and site response of the architecture.
