Architect Designs An Off-Grid Super House In The Hills of The Californian Coast (House Tour)

This property is located 30 to 45 minutes from the nearest store or the nearest gas station or the nearest town. So it's relatively remote for this part of California and there are no utilities servicing this property like you might have in a denser community. There's no power utilities, there's no sewer system, there's no municipal water supply. It's such a beautiful, pristine environment. That was really the most characteristic part of the project is that there's nothing here and we wanted to make sure that we didn't mess that up. We're at the point at which the California coastline turns from a north-south orientation to an east-west orientation and that's created a set of very unique geographic conditions due to being at an unusually high altitude right near the ocean. This project is located on a very narrow ridgeline, approximately 15 to 20 degree downward slope and terminates in a knoll that we're that we're currently sitting on. As you approach the house, the slope drops off at 30 to 40 degrees on both sides of the driveway, forcing us to arrange the structures from high to low, starting with the garage and continuing downhill to the living spaces. Having the garage above and away from the living area means you don't see any cars. The cars don't pollute your sense of peace and connection to nature. You are then met with two gardens. The roof structures of the buildings below, these roofs consist of planted trays first grown in a nursery with a mix of local grasses and succulents. Gradually over time, whatever seeds or pollens are blowing through the air and landing on this roof, the most well-adapted and tough species survive. It's very Darwinian, so it looks perfectly consistent with what is on the hillsides around us. As you descend the stairs, you feel a strong sense of compression before you arrive at the living space. Essentially, it's a three-sided glass pavilion supported by concrete and steel. We're on a historical cattle ranch that happens to also be a very beautiful and pristine environment, so we had a lot of building constraints. The main structure had to contain all the living areas. The dining area, along with a single bedroom and a single bathroom. These constraints would have been typical of a guest house of that era. The architecture needed to be inspired by the vernacular architecture that's found on a historical cattle ranch. The construction reflects these ideas by referencing the concrete we see on the train trestles up and down the coast here and rusting steel on the working gates of a cattle ranch. The house also had to be completely off-grid. All the primary utilities are provided and are located on the site. We have a well that provides our water supply. We have a photovoltaic array and battery system that provides all the power needs for the house. We have our own septic system that treats all of the septic that's generated in the project, so we truly are disconnected from any shared utilities. The property at such a high altitude is very exposed to the sun. We put a lot of thought into sun shading and climactic controls. These metal screens were designed to protect this big glass wall from the very low angle sun. One of the goals for the interior was to add warmth. We chose walnut because walnut is a very sensual and luxurious wood material and it also has a grain expression and a deep rich tone that feels at home in this palette of materials. This project is all about being immersed in this environment, your connection to it, and your relation to the views. And it happens in the most extreme way at the terminus of the where this outdoor space juts out over the canyon and you get to feel like you're participating in a way that is beyond just observing it. You're immersed in it. It's very visceral.