Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2023
Ro54 Single-Family House
- A' Design Award 2023 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: Arshia Architects
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 19,385
- Verification code 80D9C063E2 · Verify this award
About Ro54 Single-Family House
RO54 is a single-family house built on a hillside site in Los Angeles. The house uses a split-level layout with staggered floor plates arranged around a central void. Central bridging stairs bring sunlight and visual connection to the deepest level, which reduces the physical and psychological distance between rooms. The outer shell was CNC milled from a digital design and follows streamlined automotive forms. A 16 foot cantilever on the second floor forms an entrance canopy. Open floor plans allow furniture to be rearranged.
Arshia Mahmoodi's RO54 Single-Family House emerges as a compelling meditation on the relationship between geometric precision and organic landscape, positioning itself within the continuing evolution of residential modernism that traces lineage through canonical hillside dwellings of the mid-twentieth century while embracing contemporary computational design sensibilities. The residence demonstrates remarkable compositional sophistication through its distinctive bifurcated massing strategy, where two primary volumes extend from a central circulation spine to create sheltered outdoor spaces while maximizing panoramic engagement with the surrounding terrain. The architect's material palette achieves visual coherence through strategic restraint, employing the time-honored modernist dialogue between light and dark surfaces while the crisp white edge banding serves simultaneously as functional weather protection and formal articulation device, tracing the building's complex geometry with graphic clarity. Technical accomplishment manifests throughout in the precision of cantilever engineering, the seamless integration of extensive glazing systems at corner conditions, and the careful coordination between landscape and architecture that establishes graduated thresholds between interior comfort and natural environment. The rooftop terrace program, visible from this elevated vantage, suggests the designer's commitment to extending habitable space beyond conventional interior boundaries, treating the building's upper surface as an occupied landscape rather than mere weather envelope. Thematic resonance emerges through the work's engagement with perennial architectural questions regarding shelter and prospect, enclosure and transparency, the desire for prospect over magnificent terrain balanced against the human need for protected intimate space. The interplay between angular built form and the soft undulating hillside creates productive tension, each element heightening appreciation for the other's distinctive character. Viewers might contemplate how the residence navigates the enduring challenge of situating contemporary life within natural settings, creating neither dominance over landscape nor submission to it, but rather a sophisticated dialogue of mutual enhancement.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Automotive inspired intelligible shell, CNC milled from digital design.
Split level architecture with central bridging stairs to allow sunlight and visual connection to the deepest level.
Dynamic 16 ft cantilever of the second floor creating an entrance canopy and shaded prelude.
Fluidity in circulation and open floor plans that allow for rearrangement of furniture and interior decoration.
Correlation of exterior form and interior hulk.
Museum-quality basement grand room. - Dimensions & Packaging
- 17246mm x 19735mm x 7315mm
- Tags
- split-level configuration, sensory performance, streamline automotive aesthetics, dynamic cantilever, fluidity circulation G exterior & interior correlation
- Production Technology
- Automotive inspired intelligible shell, CNC milled from digital design.
Split level architecture with central bridging stairs to allow sunlight and visual connection to the deepest level.
Dynamic 16 ft cantilever of the second floor creating an entrance canopy and shaded prelude.
Fluidity in circulation and open floor plans that allow for rearrangement of furniture and interior decoration.
Correlation of exterior form and interior hulk.
Museum-quality basement grand room. - Design Challenge
- How can we minimize the physical and psychological distances between different chambers in a residential assemblage? Most homes are constructed with rooms arranged in either horizontal or vertical layouts, which often lead to partitioning and separation due to privacy or functional requirements. Walls, doors, and other barriers typically divide these spaces.
- Project Duration
- 07/2017-06/2022
1254 Roberto Ln, Bel Air, CA 90077, USA - Operation Flow
- The project itself provided for an inclusive engagement with its surrounding space by means of large open spaces and utilization of the ideals of transparency for honest integration into its surrounding community. There is little to hide and what belongs to the house belongs to the neighborhood and conversely, what belongs to the neighborhood is brought into the house. The architecture in turn demands a change of attitude from its occupants towards the community, to be open and to be known.
- Research
- Our aim for tackling this stoic problem was to reduce the time (Δt) required to access other spaces in the program, physically or psychologically. We looked at the problem on a horizontal plane (xy axis), where we aimed to dissolve all unnecessary divisions. This meant direct visual connection from one space to most other spaces in the house, which shortened the time of accessing information in other parts of the house, therefore reducing its psychological distances.
- Inspiration
- The design vocabulary was informed by streamline automotive aesthetics, proposing every technology in the house to have exponent performance discreetly, allowing the architectural space to deliver a sensory performance.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Yuheng Huang, Exterior View, 2022.
Image #2: Photographer Renee Parkhurst, Living Room, 2022.
Image #3: Photographer Paul Vu, Library, 2022.
Image #4: Photographer Paul Vu, Kitchen, 2022.
Image #5: Photographer Renee Parkhurst, Exterior View, 2022. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Arshia Architects;
Colors of Ro54 Single-Family House
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