Canadian architects Bricault Design have completed a plant-covered extension to a house in Venice, Los Angeles.
Large glass doors on the ground floor pivot open onto the courtyard.
Air is drawn inside and up a sculptural staircase to an opening in the roof, cooling the building.
The building is clad with cedar batons and the new bedroom is covered in plants, including vegetables and indigenous shrubs.
Here’s some more information from Bricault Design:
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Brooks Avenue House
The clients for this project needed more space to accommodate the needs of a growing family, but they were reluctant to leave their location in Venice - one of the few walkable neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
The solution was to maintain and remodel their existing 2000 square foot home, while creating a 1700 square foot addition and courtyard on the rear lane side.
With an ideal climate for much of the year, a primary design driver was to create a seamless connection between inside and outside, while eliminating the need for air conditioning.
To this end, a central sculptural staircase links the ground floor with the rooftop deck, while doubling as a chimney to draw cooling breezes through the house.
On the main floor, a sequence of pivoting doors opens the house to the courtyard, while on the second floor, windows fold back and full-height exterior panels slide into walls.
A system of cedar battens serve as a shading device along much of the addition.
The volume of the new master bedroom extends out from the second story, creating a carport below.
Its exterior is clad with a living wall system on three sides, visually tying together the courtyard greenery with the planted roof.
All landscaping is fed with a combination of captured rainwater and recycled domestic grey water.
The roof’s softscape is divided between a highly productive vegetable garden and indigenous, low-maintenance grasses and shrubs.
The roof also supports a solar panel array that is sufficient to meet household needs.
The house features a high-efficiency combination boiler, which supplies both radiant in-floor heating and domestic hot water.
A hot water recirculation loop makes hot water available “on demand,” while reducing consumption.
Other features include low-flush toilets and non-toxic, low-VOC finishes, which are used throughout the house.
