Faceted cement blocks form patio at heart of Los Angeles home

Shoehorned into a gap between houses in Culver City, Los Angeles, the residence is characterised by its multi-faceted roof forms. FreelandBuck, an architecture practice with offices in New York and Los Angeles, concieved Second Home as three interconnected volumes, arranged to make the best use of space on the restricted plot and to protect the privacy of a small outdoor area at its heart.

The three blocks are clad hermetically in cement sheets and present their tallest sides to the street. Here, only clerestory glazing permits natural light to enter the upper storey of each volume, but towards the central patio the roof form angles down, to offer a pocket of space for a balcony adjoining the master bedroom.  The protected ground floor facing the courtyard benefits from floor to ceiling windows, which can be folded back in part to connect with a kitchen, dining area and lounge. 

“The new structure borrows the steeply pitched rooflines of the front house while turning inward around a private, central courtyard,” say architects David Freeland and Brennan Buck of the roof form.  Grey limestone and white stained pine flooring continues across the threshold, visually unifying the indoor and outdoor spaces.  

The smallest of the blocks forms a double-height space to the lounge, while the adjoining volume hosts a double garage at ground level and the master bedroom above.

A staircase, transitioning from white stained pine to vivid red-orange paintwork, reflects its presence down into the combined kitchen and dining area from the guest bedroom, a single element breaking up the starkness of the interiors.