outdoor spaces

Koltuniak regularly hosts community parties at her home, and opens it to artist residencies.

"The desert will test newcomers and not all of them will remain,

The property is pulled off from the highway with Joshua Tree in the distance. “The house is completely silent,” says Jessica. “I sleep differently here.”

The architects made sure to step back the upper-level addition so as not to overwhelm the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Plus, "If we build on top of it, and try to make it a new and larger box, it will falsify the identity,

Keeping ample green space on the property was a top-tier goal. One of the house's original screened-in porches remains, but, according to Emily, "we dropped the screens so when you're sitting in the dining room, you can look out and see the bamboo." The divide between the new and old sections is marked by a gap in the roof that lets the sun into a small planted area.

The rebuilt “Idea House,” designed by Holly Freres and David Horning of JHL design. The driveway is permeable to encourage good drainage: crushed granite gravel is installed over a stabilization mat. James Hardie exterior siding is painted in Benjamin Moore ‘White Dove,’ with reclaimed wood used for the entry and garage.

“I’m the queen of Ikea cabinets,” laughs Jade. She commissioned custom birch-veneer plywood for the doors from L.A.’s Anderson Plywood. While she was budget-conscious in many ways, she also is willing to splurge where it counts. “Hardware is where I spend money. That’s where people touch and feel it,” she says. “It’s important to me that it feels significant.” Here, pulls and knobs come from Mockett. The countertop is a man-made resin from Arizona Tiles in La Quinta.

Some of the furnishings and materials were sourced from a company in L.A. called Unbuilt.co that buys leftovers from construction sites. “They work hard at giving materials a second chance,” says Jade. This is where she found the mixed-pattern tiles they’ve used on the front and back porches.

Architect Ignacio Urquiza knew this plot of land and its views, as he had walked it often as a child. While most of the homes face south, Urquiza took advantage of the mountaintop siting with views spanning both mountains and lake.

At Las Rocas, you always have two views: the lake and the rocks, which was the impetus for erasing the corners of the home. “The corner openings were a must for this project, because they really connect you to the outside,” says architect Ignacio Urquiza.

Extra-wide concrete pillars help to support the studio at its core.

Feldman Architecture opens up a dark and cramped seaside house with big windows and a healthy dose of wood.

Existing boulders from the site were moved and used as minimalist landscaping at Casa Roca. Solar panels above were prefabricated off site so as not to disturb the surroundings.

The home, which is located on waterfront property, sits atop cement columns as both a safety measure and to take advantage of the ocean views.