XYZ Small Lot
Venice CA
Architecture, Construction, Landscape, Entitlements
Completed 2019
2020 AIA|LA Residential Architecture Merit Award
Photos: Eric Staudenmaier
The single family house is the dwelling type most
characteristic of Los Angeles, but land is no longer plentiful,
and housing is in short supply, so new typologies are needed
to explore how to design within a smaller footprint. These
three single-family houses occupy a 4,500 square foot lot
fronting the street that once was the Grand Canal of Venice of America. The parcel map to subdivide the property was
approved under the Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance, enacted
by the City of Los Angeles in 2005, which allows single family
houses to be constructed with modified setback requirements
and parking easements within the subdivision. The intention
of the ordinance is to encourage densification while increasing
the potential for home ownership by allowing for smaller
homes on smaller lots.
Each house has its own identity and occupies a distinct parcel
of land with a pedestrian gate at the sidewalk and roll-up door
for parking access from the alley. The X and Y houses face
the street, while the Z house is behind adjacent to the alley.
Two thirty-foot tall L-shaped plaster walls are the primary
organizational elements. These windowless walls separate
the houses from one another and form an axial passageway
from the street to the alley house. The houses vary in size, and
each has a unique typological character: Live/Work, Family
and Loft. Private roof patios, shielded from one another by
the placement of roof structures and the sloped roof of the
alley house, occupy the top level of all three houses.