Situated in San Francisco, California, USA above the Dolres Park on a quite steep internet site with a public garden on one side, Craig Steely Architecture constructed Peter’;s Home in such a way as to disturb the land as small as attainable. The 1800sqft begins with the 24′x24′ cast-in-spot garage on the lowest point of the website. The architects then constructed a 3-storey glass tower on leading of the garage and in front of the slope, enabling the hillside to stay intact. The top volume of the property is then reconnected with the landscape by means of a concrete terrace. Privacy from the public garden was developed by means of a series of interior and exterior wooden louvers. The Louvers where also utilised in the creation of the garage doors.
The garage doors are louvered for air and light flow when closed. Because the louvers are rigid pieces of wood and there is no area for them to slide sideways, the architects made the doors with a central hinge and two sections of the louvers – an upper and reduced. This allows the door to bend up and out in a folding format.
The alternating double row of louvers on the garage door creates a slotted style that is significantly more private on the centre half of the door. Continuing the flow of wood is a drum shaped segment beside the garage door that wraps about a circular stairway that leads to the floor above.
A flight of concrete stairs travels from the street up by means of the public garden to the prime of the slope.
The public garden offers a lush green space to an otherwise urban setting and the architects took benefit of this with the glass tower design. Although none of the huge glazings, round “port holes” within the glazings pivot open for air circulation.
The public stairs arrive at the best of the slope a brief distance from Peter’;s residence and a lengthy landing connects them to an additional quick flight of stairs that leads to the home’;s back deck.
The wooden louvers on the side of Peter’;s residence exactly where designed to offer privacy from the public gardens, but there is some thing else that is specific about them. Although the property was nonetheless in its design stage, a new on-ramp was under building for the Golden Gate Bridge and a grove of Monterey Cypress trees needed to be cleared to accommodate the ramp. The architects where able to secure some of the downed trees and hired a neighborhood mill shop to develop all 90 of the strong wood louvers used within the home. The exterior louvers are fixed while the interior ones are operable for privacy and light exposure.
The outdoor stairs leads to a concrete “bridge” that connects to the residences back deck and to the slope itself. The deck is wrapped in the Montery Cypress panels for privacy.
The deck is big and spacious and made to be an extended living area for the house. Right here planters continue the greenery of the public space whilst outdoor cabinetry creates a continuum to the kitchen cabinetry on the other side of the glazings. With glazings on 3 sides of the residence, there are views in every single direction.
The architects developed Peter’;s Home to have the social zone on the leading floor to take benefit of the outdoor living area.
With the outdoor living area proper off the kitchen, the homeowners can grow their personal herbs and some vegetables inside the containers if they so select.
With the deck just off of the kitchen, the architects chose to use a marble with heavy veining on the counter tops and backsplash to compliment the grey inside the concrete outdoors.
The living area just past the kitchen draws on the white inside the marble while the wood flooring (also utilized in the kitchen) ties in with the kitchen cabinetry. Whilst there are no windows on the media wall, skylights above flood the shelving with natural light and glass panels in the floor continue the flow of light to the volume below.
Just previous the living room is a terrace overlooking the street under and the city beyond.
Just below the terrace, a single level down is the Master Bedroom. While there is no deck off of the bedroom, the wall-to-wall glazings bring the outdoors in and a comfy Corbusier lounge chair is the excellent location to get pleasure from the outside views. When its time for privacy, the louvers can be closed.
The bedroom has a panoramic view of the cityscape in front and a view of the public garden to the side. Two large portholes produce an interesting visual witin the glazings that is picked up on with the choice of light pendant on the ceiling.
Behind the Master Bedroom and surrounded by frosted glass is the ensuite. The exact same heavily veined marble is utilised on the floor, walls and counters. The only place it is not featured is on the big expanse of mirror above the vanity.
With the ensuite wrapped in marble, there is no want for a separate shower space.
A hallway among the ensuite and bedroom leads to a flight of stairs that leads to the volume under. From there, a circular staircase leads to the garage. The stairwell is kept light and bright through the natural light traveling from the living area skylights through the glass panels in the living room floor.
A second bathroom on the second level also functions marble, but in this case a black marble with pale grey veining. The stark white of the tub, vessel sink and wall under the vanity as nicely as the frosted glass wall keep the space from feeling dark.
The second volume is connected to the garage by way of a circular stairway of white powder coated steel wrapped in vertical wood 1x6s.
By designing the house as a free of charge standing tower, connected to the land by a concrete bridge above and the garage below, excavation was decreased to 1/3 of the norm thereby minimally affecting the native hillside and all-natural drainage.
Craig Steely Architecture
Photography by Bruce Damonte
