High Above the Malibu Hills, This Cantilevered California Home Is a Testament to Resilience

At the top of a winding mountain road, high in the hills of Malibu, California, the wild, undulating landscape gives way to a clearing with an angular mass of concrete and glass—an architecturally arresting structure which appears to float over the hillside below. Southern California residents Bata and Rose Mataja have called this ethereal setting home for 27 years, but putting down roots in this remote locale almost never came to be.

Bata and Rose Mataja—both 75—met at a movie theater in Los Angeles in the 1960s, and have been inseparable ever since. "We've been together since we were 19," says Bata. The couple rented their first home—for $75/month—in downtown Burbank, purchasing their first residence in Pasadena a year later. Bata, a car enthusiast, founded Two's Company, a company that prepared cars for advertising, and later, The Big American Dream Company, which designed concept cars for the entertainment industry. Through growing businesses—and a growing family—Bata and Rose contemplated another move. After welcoming their son and daughter, Bata and Rose were living in a midcentury post-and-beam home in Glendale’s Whiting Woods when Bata brought an idea to his wife. "In 1992, I told my wife, ‘Let's go look at some property. I want to buy a piece of property because I've always wanted to build a house,’" he recalls.

High above the Malibu coast, they toured a sprawling property which overlooked their favorite beach from their younger days—Leo Carrillo. The 32-acre site was remote and undeveloped, with no roads, no power, and no other homes in the vicinity. "The grass was probably chest high all the way around," says Bata. "Rose was not really impressed with it." Sidelining the hilly parcel, Bata and Rose continued their property search, looking all the way up the coast to San Luis Obispo, before the Malibu land crept back into Bata’s thoughts. "I said to Rose, ‘Let's go back to that piece of property that was overlooking Leo Carrillo,’" Bata recalls. "She said, ‘What property?’ She had already forgotten about it." 

 Their second visit, however, would change everything. "On the day we came back up, we had a really good breeze," says Bata. "The wind was blowing, and it was just absolutely clear," he says, recalling unobstructed ocean views clear out to Catalina. "The sky was blue and it was just fantastic." Within a month of that magical second visit, they purchased the property. 

The isolated parcel, 1,700 feet above sea level, is surrounded by natural beauty in all directions. To the north, the Santa Monica Mountains provide vistas reminiscent of Arizona or New Mexico with their dramatic rock formations. To the south, the site overlooks the rolling hills of Mulholland Canyon, and the ocean beyond. On the site itself, giant sandstone boulders dotted the hillside—a feature that attracted Bata from the start. "I bought the property because I love the boulders," says Bata. Drawing inspiration from architect Albert Frey’s work in Palm Springs, Bata imagined building the house around the existing boulders. "When we had the rocks here, we incorporated them into the house," he says.

When a contractor Bata knew through work introduced him to Hagy Belzberg and George Whitman, the design for the residence began in earnest. "These two young guys were working out of Hagy's parents' garage in Beverly Hills," says Bata of the up-and-coming architects. "The only prerequisite I had for them—I said, ‘I've got two children, a cat, and a dog. Even though it's a modern house, it has to be a home.’" After visiting the site, Belzberg and Whitman came back with drawings of the house—a concrete and glass structure cantilevered over the hillside, with angled glass curtain walls overlooking Mulholland Canyon. "I was so enthusiastic about it," says Bata of the initial design.

The amount of concrete in the house—4,500 cubic yards—threatened to derail the project before it even began. To build the house out of concrete as designed, would cost much more than the young architects had initially anticipated. "They said, ‘It's way too expensive. We can't do that,’" says Bata. Although Belzberg and Whitman proposed alternatives to achieve a similar look, Bata put his foot down. "I said, ‘If we don't build it out of concrete, we're not building it,’" Bata recalls. "They said, ‘Well, then it’s all over,’ but what they didn't understand is that what they gave me as the design was so beautiful and I loved it, that there was no way that I wouldn't build it."

Construction on the house was completed in 1998—two decades later, Bata and Rose would experience their first terrifying brush with natural disaster that would threaten their home and their own safety. A reality of living in California, wildfires are top of mind for many residents—but Bata and Rose had never experienced the threat up close until the Woolsey Fire of 2018. "The fire jumped over the highway and it was on this side of Malibu," recalls Bata. "It was coming this direction, and we never got any warning, so we were stuck in our home," he says of the fire’s unexpected trajectory. With the window of opportunity for evacuation closed, Bata and Rose packed up their essentials, took their pets, and rode out the fire in their car at the top of the hill. "There was a wall of flames coming up," recalls Bata. "I could start to feel the heat." Bata and Rose watched from above as the fire rolled over the top of the house.

In the aftermath of the fire, Bata and Rose began the lengthy process of repairing and restoring the areas of the house that sustained damage. "The fire generated enough heat that it actually cracked some glass," says Bata. They replaced all of the double-paned glass—adding a 10% tint—and upgraded the plastic skylights to glass as well. The new windows, rated for 125 mile per hour winds, are over-engineered for the 60-70 mile per hour gusts the home is sometimes exposed to. "Hagy and George had designed a house to really withstand [the elements]," says Bata. "It’s really pretty solid and strong."

The home’s metal roof survived the blaze but most of the caulk joints were damaged in the fire—necessitating a full replacement. "They didn't make the roof anymore because it was only one inch standing seam," says Bata. "The new rule was one and a half inches, so you couldn't patch it." The whole roof was pulled off, before adding a new water shield, heat shield, and finally, new metal roof. The Versa-Span roof system from Taylor Metal Products—produced locally in Riverside and Sacramento—features 18-inch-wide panels with a 1¾-inch standing seam. The roof carries a Class A fire rating, and can be reasonably expected to last 40-60 years, giving Bata peace of mind. "I have a better roof than I had before," he says. 

Local installer and Metal Roofing Alliance (MRA) member Pacific Metal Roofing expertly navigated the installation of the home's geometrically complex roof—covering a surface area of over ten thousand square feet. "The roofing people were insane," says Bata of Pacific’s work. "They were absolutely spectacular." All of the "hardened" aspects of the home’s 2020 renovation give the structure a nearly impenetrable exterior shell. "No pun intended, it's rock solid," says Bata. The home is well-equipped to withstand future wildfire threat, even garnering recognition from the Ventura County Fire Department. "This place is perfect," Bata recalls being told. "This is the way you should build in the mountains."

When Bata is not spending time in the home’s 1,000-square-foot car gallery—"the most important place in the whole house," he says—he and Rose enjoy gathering in their home with their children Branden and Bree, and granddaughter Poppy. Though they once had a fence around the perimeter of the property to deter predators, they eventually took it down. "That’s not what I came up here for," says Bata. Now, animals—mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits, and quail—flow freely through the property. From the hillside perch high in the clouds, Bata takes in the fluctuating light and changing seasons. "You get the mountains. You get the sunrise, sunset. And what's really cool is seeing the sun moving on the horizon left to right; summer, winter," he says. "You really get to feel nature here. And to me, that's incredible."

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