RO54 House, Bel-Air, Los Angeles real estate design, California residence photos

RO54 House in Los Angeles

November 13, 2024

Architecture: Arshia Architects

Location: Bel-Air, Los Angeles, Southern California, USA

photo © Yuheng Huang

Photos by Paul Vu, Renee Parkhurst, and Yuheng Huang

RO54 House, Bel-Air, L.A.

The project sits on a focal point on a Bel-Air hilltop. Raising the design plateau one story afforded the owner views of the Pacific Ocean, therefore a split-level / offset design was introduced to allow gradual ascent to the top of the roof with little effort. A central “void” is created with bridging stairs to allow sunlight and visual connection to the lowest levels of the building. The basement is buried, with a daylight condition to allow a courtyard for the lower bedrooms. Split level design to conform to the topography encased in an automotive inspired monocoque shell. Breaking the mass to conform to the topography with a split-level design and concealing the basement level as a vegetated plinth, reduced the visual impact of a three-story building. The landscape design emboldened the tree canopy coverage as well as providing visual privacy for the neighbors.

photo © Paul Vu

The project’s concept set out to reduce the massing of a rather large project, for it to lodge within the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. This 1940’s hallow post-war neighborhood has been transforming gradually, overtaken by recent developments that rely on size rather than spatial quality. The project on the other hand, set out to propose an example of what can be offered within the confines of stringent regulations.

This project engages an exercise in spatial relationships to accelerate the programs of the house. The cross section of the building was set as a split-level configuration in lieu of a traditional stacked story configuration, where floor plates are related only by means of vertical circulation. The plates form adjacencies, both visual and functional therefore allowing twice the utility of an otherwise dissected arrangement.

The design was informed by streamline automotive design, proposing every technology in the house to have exponent performance behind the scenes, allowing the architectural space to deliver a visual performance.

photo © Paul Vu

The design gently lands a dynamic building on top of a buried podium that replicates the natural topography that was once there. A central “void” was created between the split levels to allow bridging half-level stairs between the floors. This allows for sunlight and visual connection from the rooftop level to the base of the building.

The building sits on a basement podium that is intentionally buried as a vegetated mound, while daylighting out of the slope at the lower bedrooms with a courtyard, that also acts as the rainwater runoff filtration system for the entire site.

The project integrates the design with photovoltaic panels as well as an electricity storage system. The project meets or exceeds stringent California green building and energy conservation standards such as low-flow plumbing systems, rainwater filtration, solar panel integration, high efficiency building envelope and glazing, HERS rating of the mechanical system and more.

photo © Paul Vu

RO54 House, Bel-Air, Los Angeles – Building Information

Architecture: Arshia Architects – https://www.arshia.net/
Project size: 6774 sq. ft.
Site size: 10314 sq. ft.
Completion date: 2022
Building levels: 3

photo © Renee Parkhurst

Photos: Paul Vu, Renee Parkhurst, and Yuheng Huang

RO54 House, Bel-Air, Los Angeles images / information received 131124

Location: Los Angeles, Southern California, United States of America

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