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There’s the option to rent out the top floor, but it also makes a great place for family visiting from Europe to stay.

“I decided on the yellow ladder for two reasons,” says Byron. “I wanted to evoke an image of a fire station ladder with a playful obstacle to climb up and down. But with such a small space and a tall mezzanine level, I wanted to make sure that the ladder was also highly visible.” The hue of the paint is even appropriately named Safety Yellow.

Exposing structural materials as finish materials created valuable cost savings. The structural concrete floors and exposed second floor framing strengthen the overall aesthetic, while eliminating the need for drywall or additional flooring.

Wedged with precision between the existing garage and pool, the narrow new structure is only 13 feet wide.

Thompson, a founding principal of Assembledge+, had recently participated in a Los Angeles Magazine project to imagine solutions for those who lack housing in the city. Their notion was for public agencies to subsidize building ADUs in backyards along alleyways, dovetailing with existing alley revitalization initiatives

"The house meets all the requirements for being a Greenbuilt Home,

Architect Johan Sundberg looked to Japanese architects like Kengo Kuma for inspiration for the design of a holiday home in southern Sweden. "We call it the Katsura typology, but that's probably sacrilegious," he says. The eaves of the gently sloped hipped roof extend generously in all directions, turning the deck into a covered retreat that’s part veranda, part engawa, the Japanese version of a porch.