CHANNEL SURFING; VIDEO-FRIENDLY BEACH HOUSE COULD REFLECT ... ANYTHING.

Byline: Patricia Leigh Brown The New York Times

Michael Jantzen, a California designer and conceptual artist, was driving down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu one day when he had an unusual vision. ``I was looking at all the ugly houses blocking the view of the ocean,'' he said, ``and I thought, wouldn't it be nice to see the ocean on the facade?''

The result - a millennial flight of fantasy yet to be built - is the world's first video beach house, in which the 50-year-old designer grapples with an existential question: What would it be like to live in a Web site?

``I wanted to present some possibilities of what we might do with all these new toys,'' said the designer, who lives in a normal apartment in El Segundo and is an instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. ``I'm interested in the idea of changeable, responsive architecture.''

Jantzen's concept for a beach house takes the idea of a video wall to its logical conclusion. Although video images have become a part of everyday life, from theme restaurants to virtual biking, Jantzen advocates going one step further. In what is perhaps an architectural critic's dream, a ho-hum building could seem to disappear. In this case, video monitors pointing toward the ocean in the back of the house provide images of waves and sky that are projected onto the front of the house. The images could be manipulated by the homeowner. ``If it's cloudy,'' Jantzen said, ``you could put on a prerecorded sunny day from the day before.''

Inside, reality and virtual reality might frolic with each other. Cameras situated around the house would send real-time images to video ``windows.'' A virtual bonfire would be surrounded by real logs. In a double-height atrium with skylights, Jantzen proposes a wood-plank boardwalk suspended over real sand. Part of the boardwalk would incorporate a flat video monitor displaying images of fish. The planks would lead the homeowner, or others who dare to tread, to a real indoor pool. ``The idea is to let the beach experience flow into the house, both in reality and through media,'' he said.

To Jantzen, the ability to morph both real and virtual images will be part of the house of the future, as will the ability to visit a home as if it were a home page. The concept includes access through the Internet. ``You could put your 3-D glasses on and go for a walk on the beach,'' he suggested.

Jantzen's previous conceptual designs include a backyard office pod, a module for working outside. In real life, he has designed, among other things, numerous solar houses and a climbing structure for children modeled on DNA for the Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Technologically, he said, the video beach house is doable - at what price he didn't know. ``The only way to find out is to build it,'' he said.

He said he believes in the potential of technology to create more humane, responsive architecture. He does not picture house fronts with projected images of Bruce Willis writ large, he said, but rather houses that would reflect images of ``what the site would look like if the house wasn't there.''

If it were to be built, Jantzen's beach house would be able to bring the Malibu way of life to the masses (though he has yet to invent a virtual lifeguard). In addition to Internet access, videos placed throughout the house could project images from the interior onto the facade.

The implications are earth-shattering. ``You could have a party sometime and include everybody,'' Jantzen said.

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9 Photos

Photo: (1--3--Cover--Color) LIFE'S A BEACH

Artist marries ecology with technology to bring back ocean views

(4--7--Color) Michael Jantzen's video-house concept features, clockwise from left, a virtual fireplace and virtual windows with beamed-in pictures; a house front made entirely of video screens that can re-create the beach scenery behind it - or any other image; a wall of skylights facing the ocean; hanging screens that project whatever is in the sky; and multiple interior levels accessed via stairs.

(8--9--Color) Designer Michael Jantzen looks at the Malibu houses that inspired him to come up with a home design that lets the ocean view show through. The tall, squarish homes, below, are the perfect size for his video-screen idea.

Computer images by Mark Oberholtz, photo by Myung J. Chun/Daily News