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An assortment of floating roof planes, steel columns, and ground surfaces form fluctuating borders around the central artwork: the view. A space suitable for parties, indeed.

Custom Design

Pugh + Scarpa had a hand in every aspect of design, including hardware and furniture. The only prefabricated item in the house — besides the plumbing fixtures — seems to be the fireplace in the master bedroom. "How do you make it seamless?" Luk says the designers kept asking themselves that question and kept generating details that answered it.

Each material received special attention as well. The concrete floors, the maple flooring, and the woodwork are all stained; most exposed steel surfaces received a patina coating to relate more closely to the copper cladding; the limestone floors are sculpted; the plaster is smooth.

Even the board-formed concrete walls have some whimsy to them: inserted at random are colored glass vases roughly 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, purchased from Target and acting as tiny light apertures.

When asked what could be learned from a project like this, where the constraints are minimal, Luk says many ideas from this house have carried through in Pugh + Scarpa's more recent projects.

"We are using similar ideas, just not at this scale." Luk pauses, then adds, "Or with these high-end materials." He cites a housing project he is working on, in which the use of loft spaces makes a 1,200-square-foot (110-square-meter) apartment feel more like a 2,500-square-foot (230-square-meter) custom house — though, one guesses, not quite like this one.

Leigh Christy is an architect and writer living in Los Angeles.

Architect: Pugh + Scarpa
Structural Engineer: Gordon Polon
MEP Engineer: Helfman Halloossim
General Contractor: RJC Construction

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The Redelco Residence in Studio City, California, designed and redesigned by Pugh + Scarpa. Photo: Marvin Rand Master bedroom suite. Photo: Marvin Rand Pool with a view. Photo: Marvin Rand Basement floor plan. Image: Pugh + Scarpa Main floor plan. Image: Pugh + Scarpa Upper floor plan. Image: Pugh + Scarpa   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.