X House
Venice CA
Architecture, Construction, Landscape, Entitlements
Completed 2019
2020 AIA|LA Residential Architecture Award
Photos: Eric Staudenmaier
Clad with aluminum bar grating, the X House faces onto Grand Blvd and is the smallest of the XYZ Houses. The three-story structure is organized around a spiraling switchback stair that minimizes circulation areas and divides each level into two clear zones. Conceived as a live/work house, the ground level studio looks out to the garden, which is screened from the street by gabion walls filled with lava rock and planted with butterfly vines. The middle level contains a tiled kitchen with a balcony overlooking the street, as well as the living room on the far side of the netted staircase. The upper level is a large suite, receiving light through an aluminum screen and from the skylight atop the stairwell.