Solar umbrella: Lawrence Scarpa's own family house in Venice Beach is an imaginative and ecologically aware response to the balmy Californian climate.Frugality and sustainability are the hallmarks of Pugh + Scarpa Antonio 1752-1832. Italian anatomist and surgeon known for his studies of the ear and nerves and for his description of atherosclerosis. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ninety solar panels wrap the south side and canopy the bedroom terrace, blocking the sun and generating an energy credit. The house is cooled by cross ventilation, and all rainwater is retained on site. A narrow, wedge-shaped lantern rises above the kitchen, pulling in natural light (warmed by its purple acrylic lining) and doubling as a heat chimney when the skylight is opened. Pocketing glass sliders open the living room to the front, and the master bedroom opens to a terrace, bringing the outdoors in. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The notion of indoor-outdoor living in southern California was pioneered by immigrants from cold climates, such as the Greene brothers of Cincinnati and Schindler and Neutra Neutra: see Nitra, Slovakia. from Vienna. Scarpa had the opposite experience: 'I grew up in Florida, where it is miserably hot and humid, and you get sweaty walking from your house to the car. The ocean breezes in Venice make this the best climate on the planet, and it's a crime not to take advantage of it. Green architecture is an easy, commonsense thing to do--we have an in-house electrical/mechanical engineer and typically make our buildings 50 per cent more energy efficient than more conventional solutions.' Like many architects, Scarpa launched his practice with kitchen remodels and residential additions and, when he and his wife moved into a run-down 1923 cottage on a through lot, they did an inexpensive remodel for themselves. The long back yard prompted thoughts of expansion and the arrival of their first child, five years ago, made that dream a necessity. The 130sqm addition was done on a tight budget within a restrictive zoning envelope. It was important not to overwhelm the cottages on either side, so the steel fence reduces the impact of the two-storey structure. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the front you can look through the house to the street on the far side, and glimpse treetops through the glass in the bedroom. Openness and transparency dematerialise the gritty steel and concrete, and a brise-soleil of bristles filters the light. Scarpa calls it the world's largest scrubbing brush. The original facade (now the rear) has been abstracted. A steel-framed glass box pushes forward beneath an open steel canopy, and the same material is employed for the car port and entry door. Leaves from a eucalyptus, planted by the architect five years before and sacrificed for the addition, were laid in the concrete forms and pattern the surface of the wall beside the entry. A low wall that surrounds the plunge pool serves as a bench for entertaining, as does the edge of the sunken living room. Almost everything in this inventive house does double duty. The entry to a guest bathroom and lavatory is concealed behind a hinged section of the bookcase that lines one wall. Concrete steps with a cantilevered handrail lead to a springy mesh staircase supported on a steel tube of the same rusted steel, which runs up the inner wall, hovering over a massive built-in sofa. The interior is a collage of textures and tones, from the patinated steel panels around the hearth to the soft suede finish of the homosote. A storage wall of grey-green mdf is a backdrop for the parents' bed, which opens onto an unenclosed bathing area. Though very different from its neighbours, the house has a strong sense of place. Venice, conceived a century ago as a picturesque pastiche of La Serenissima, became a tough, blue collar neighbourhood, known more for oil, bikers, and the Beats, than for its few surviving canals. Crime and gentrification co-exist in one of the few districts of West LA that has not succumbed to the suffocating quest for respectability, and vigilante committees intent on imposing a sterile conformity of taste. Venice is getting pricey but it retains its edge, and Scarpa has made an important contribution to its diversity. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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