When architect Juan Saez Pedraja first met with new clients to build a home in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, each half of the couple leaned in a different aesthetic direction. “He wanted an industrial look, but she wanted something super traditional—very cottagey and beachy,” says Saez Pedraja. “Sometimes that is a red flag for architects, but for me it seemed like an interesting challenge because of the character of the area.”

Ocean Park, says Saez Pedraja, is an eclectic neighborhood bordering a popular beach, with a streetscape composed of a mix of older bungalows and contemporary builds. After being outbid several times, the couple secured a lot there with a house that had already been partially demolished—although that wouldn’t be the project’s primary challenge.

The tricky part was the lot’s size: At 25 feet wide by 80 feet long, it was extremely elongated. “It’s the most narrow lot you can find in Santa Monica,” says Saez Pedraja.

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Rather than max out every square inch of buildable land with the new house, the architect took a different approach. Along the side boundary, Saez Pedraja positioned the structure an additional 3.5 feet from the required setback to create a linear patio along the home’s street side. This decision may have made the interior dimensions a bit smaller, but it lets the home live much larger, as large glass sliders make the patio a fluid part of the interior living areas.

The lot’s shape also contributed to the form of the building. “You cannot really do something very traditional, or intricate, because it will look very busy in such a small space,” says Saez Pedraja. To that end, the architect combined the contemporary volume with a streamlined gable roof shape, then interposed surprise tweaks, like a wall of glass that creates a glimpse of the stairwell, and cutouts in the roofline for decks. “A modern conceptual approach works well, but it also needs to have some character with the material,” says Saez Pedraja.

Select material choices brought together the couple’s aesthetic differences, such as the exposed steel accents that skew industrial, and the silvery exterior cedar siding, which evokes a beachy vibe, and better enables the home to fit in with the “laid-back Southern California look” of the neighborhood.

Inside, the couple wanted a double-height living area, and just two bedrooms. “Actually, we could have fit more,” says Saez Pedraja. But once again, building a bit less created more—in this case, more natural light and a sense of space that reaches beyond the home’s 1600-square-foot layout.

The two bedrooms are located at the mezzanine level, where a wide hallway fitted with built-in window seats and library bookshelves overlooks the living spaces below. Above that, a loft offers extra living space and also allows natural light to cascade all the way down to the main floor from the skylights and glassed roof decks. When the skylights are open, the house fills with ocean breezes.

The treatment makes it so the couple can enjoy the play of light and coastal setting all day. “The way I think about the home is how it changes during the day, and how the sun moves through it,” says Saez Pedraja. “That’s the real beauty of the house.”

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Saez Pedraja Architecture / @juansaezpedraja

Builder: OCS Homebuilders

Structural Engineer: Cristmar Designs

Interior Design: Saez Pedraja Architecture