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Floor Plan of Casa LUAA by Ana Smud

In Goseong, Architect Wook Choi and artist Jinnie Seo build a different kind of beach house with geometric volumes tied together by terraces.

Conceptually, the house is split into two distinct volumes with a landscaped strip bisecting the space.

The former dining room is now home to Russell and Fontanez’s custom kitchen, designed by LOT-EK and fabricated by Chef Restaurant Supplies. “We love to entertain,” Russell says. “Before, the galley kitchen was in the hallway; now we can cook and still be a part of the party.” The space-saving setup, which adjoins the living room, features stainless steel–paneled cabinets, DuPont Corian countertops, Onda stools by Jesus Gasca for Stua, and fixtures and appliances by Grohe, Liebherr, and Miele. To maximize space, the designers specified that the cabinets be built around a former fireplace in the kitchen. “Because there’s a bump out where the chimney is, we turned the sink lengthwise,” Lignano says. “The cabinet directly overhead is only four inches deep, so it’s just a huge spice rack.” The island provides ample additional storage.

“One of the things Max insisted on,” Sanders says, “was that we have views of our own house. That’s why all the sides of the house are different.” Some are stucco, others are metal-clad, and ipe latticework encloses one end of the garage.

There are plenty of passive and sustainable design solutions—both large and small—that can be employed to reduce heat gain and the need to artificially cool a space with air conditioning.

For all its hard environmental work, one of the most immediate of the Blue Sky Home’s pleasures is how it sits so snugly in its desert surroundings.

The original layout was very much of the time: a perfect midcentury modern flow, with a closed-off kitchen and a fire put in the floor. “They were cool but impractical spaces,” says Schaer.

More than 60 plant species were used in the layered design.

Creekside Residence