Kovac Architects on Stream House Project
The Stream House, Nichol’s Canyon, L.A., CA. by Kovac Architects. Kovac Architects has taken a bland hillside stucco box in Los Angeles and modestly but effectively transformed it with some nicely thought out and executed design ideas. Interesting addition to an existing house on a very steep hillside.
This diminutive domicile sits perched on a steep hillside overlooking a natural creek in Nichol’s Canyon. In need of some additional legroom, the owner commissioned Kovac Architects to add a master suite and bathroom to the original house. With the original home’s footprint already close to the property limit and constrained by an impossibly steep downhill site, expansion was a tricky endeavor.
Adept at designing on the most oblique of sites, Kovac chose to extend the width of the home to the edge of the property line, cladding it in wood to make it both blend and stand apart from the original structure. While the new addition measures only 8-feet wide, through innovative design and artful space planning, Kovac managed to open up the living spaces on the first floor and create a snug tree-top sanctuary in the master suite on the second floor.
The reconfigured floor plan includes an airy living room area and a spacious kitchen that opens onto the dining room area. A daring glass floor offers a bird’s eye view of the unique year-round running stream below. Kovac even found space to create a snug personal library, replete with adjoining fireplace that connects the library to the living room.
On the second floor, a small mezzanine area serves as a home office and opens onto the dining room below, creating surprising volume for such a petite dwelling. The master suite offers expansive views of canyon foliage, seamlessly connecting the bedroom to the natural landscape. Skylights flood the space with natural lighting. Kovac Architects added 616sf to the original 1491sf residence, ultimately creating a surprisingly spacious 2170sf modern ‘tree house’.
Related Project by Kovac Architects :
- The Hill Climber House
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