Six Houses Two Walls

Six Houses, Two Walls

Location
Los Angeles, CA

Year
2025

Status
Project

Project Lead
Nabil Davidson

Project Team
Brian Bradley
Samantha Radice
Jack Raymond
Claire Rosenberg

Six houses, two walls is a proposal for residential infill development in Los Angeles. Although specific to a parcel, the project indicates a repeatable strategy where dense, flexible mixtures of housing can at the same time create landscapes that are specific to their neighborhood terrain. The primary units are like a conventional three-story house that has been sheared laterally, so that two stories are under the pitch of the roof instead of one. There are six units in total. Two primary residences, each with an ADU and JADU that can be separated or joined to the primary unit.

From the outside, the building form replaces the vacant lot with another kind of terrain. On the West elevation, two bars jut out like hard mineral deposits lodged in softer earth. On the East, two walls are cut in two crisp peaks, a kind of symbolic compromise that is both large roof and the image of two mountains.

Once upon a time the lot was a pastoral field; now a geologic feature.

Outdoor life unfolds in two valleys on top, each filled with a pool and deck. Below, the gaps between blocks make covered terraces and patios.

Inside, plans are sandwiched between two thick walls. All of the mechanical and passive services of the house are lodged here, in two ribbons of baths, kitchens, sliding walls, and closets. The rooms between are flexible and open.

The slight rotation of the building mass makes a series of outdoor vestibules in the sideway. Moving north, doors open onto the side-yard in an equal, regular rhythm. Moving south, stairs ascend the roofs to the pool decks.