Los Angeles-based studio Johnston Marklee & Associates has designed the Hill House project. Completed in 2004, the 3,600 square foot single family residence sits on an irregular hillside lot in Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood and district within Los Angeles, California. The building results of from two economically driven demands: to maximize the allowable volume permitted by the zoning code, and to minimize the amount of foundations and subsequent footprint of the house. To express the continuity of the building skin and minimize the conventional distinctions between roof and wall planes, an elastomeric, cementitious exterior coating material was used requiring no control joints. The embedded lavender color of the coating was sampled from the pigment of eucalyptus bark, prevalent at the site, re-enforcing the house’s connection to the site from which its form is derived.
Photos by: Eric Staudenmaier
