House In The Forest
When the new owners of a 1950s time capsule home in La Canada first called us, they said their house was “the one with the bear”. It had been on the news after a bear that had strolled down from the nearby forest first took a swim in a neighbor’s pool and then sought refuge on a treetop on this property. The tall redwood trees that scatter the area became a theme for the design of the house and landscape.
Drawing inspiration from the Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto, who had designed similar houses in the Nordic forests of Europe, we took every opportunity to connect the house to its wooded site. This meant creating large openings framed in natural Douglas Fir to allow sweeping views. Cladding select elements of the building in knotty Cedar siding. And bringing the forest inside with a series of wandering pine columns milled from native trees.
The palette of the exterior and interior is one of the white surfaces, the canvas of the modern movement, juxtaposed with natural materials: Pine, Fir, and Oak in their natural color. This extends from the siding and windows to the flooring, cabinetry, and ceilings.
The house also represents the melding of the cultures of its owners, a Chinese concert pianist and professor of music and her husband who grew up in the Coastal forests of Mendocino County and works in film. Both related immediately to the idea of closely connecting the forested beauty of the site with the design of the house. They share their home with their two children and at times family visiting from the US and China. To that end, we created multiple guest suites for the family and their visitors to find community and privacy at different times.
Just like in a tall pine forest, angled light streaks into the house from multiple directions at different times of the day, adding a layer of movement to the house reminiscent of the owners’ involvement with music and cinematography.
On our recommendation, our clients engaged EPT as landscape architects. Themselves admirers of Alvar Aalto, equally emphasized the connections between the house and the site, from the gracious landscape steps leading up to the entry courtyard to the sensuous garden walls created from stones found at the site. Winding pathways invite visitors -and the occasional bear- on a stroll through the garden while a symphony of leafy textures captures the dappled light of the forest.
