SubscribeSign In
b

Mountain Drive Cabana

View 7 Photos
Location
Santa Barbara, California
Style
Modern
The 2'-8" thick sandstone-colored stucco wall provides for built-in storage, seating, and a fireplace in the living room.
The 2'-8" thick sandstone-colored stucco wall provides for built-in storage, seating, and a fireplace in the living room.
This thick stucco wall is carved out to accommodate the kitchen. The enormous boulders on-site are critical elements in the design that set the footprint of the structure. The glass wall can be slid open to create an indoor-outdoor dining area with the boulder as part of the experience.
This thick stucco wall is carved out to accommodate the kitchen. The enormous boulders on-site are critical elements in the design that set the footprint of the structure. The glass wall can be slid open to create an indoor-outdoor dining area with the boulder as part of the experience.
Pops of color have a high impact set against the earth-tone materials and clean lines of the space.
Pops of color have a high impact set against the earth-tone materials and clean lines of the space.
The use of glass and earth tone materials creates a seamless integration of site and structure.
The use of glass and earth tone materials creates a seamless integration of site and structure.
The shower features a floor-to-ceiling casement window that opens to an enclosed boulder courtyard, creating an outdoor shower experience. The shower niche runs all the way to the floor with the drain at the base to keep the floor clear.
The shower features a floor-to-ceiling casement window that opens to an enclosed boulder courtyard, creating an outdoor shower experience. The shower niche runs all the way to the floor with the drain at the base to keep the floor clear.
One of the thick stucco walls transitions to the hall. Reglets create shadows where the walls meet the ceiling plane.
One of the thick stucco walls transitions to the hall. Reglets create shadows where the walls meet the ceiling plane.

Credits

Posted by
Architect
Bildsten Architecture and Planning
Interior Design
Sarah Walker Design Studio
Landscape Design
Kathleen Ferguson Landscapes
Builder
Creative Structural Design/ GC
Photographer
Jim Bartsch

From Bildsten Architecture and Planning

The Mountain Drive cabana is an 800sf rebuild after the Tea fire destroyed the original pool cabana nearby. In the aftermath of the fire, the owners wanted to re-work the pool and surrounding deck and create a usable accessory structure for their family gatherings on the 38-acre property. Several enormous boulders define the outline of the building and are less than an inch away from the front and back sliding glass walls. The property is studded with mature live oaks and California native plants on the steep hillsides.

The contemporary design features 2'-8" thick walls running north-south through the building, defining spaces and providing carved-out areas for closets, bookshelves, fireplace, reading nook, and kitchen counters. These massive protective concrete walls function as thermal mass and protection on the east side from additional boulders tumbling down. Full height sliding glass panels that run east-west provide views of the ocean and access to the pool area to the south, and to the north connect to hillside gardens and expansive mountain views.

Details emphasize simplicity - reglets transition wall to ceiling planes, jambs are concealed, creating smooth corners with no trim. Corten steel fascias hide integrated rain gutters, provide fire protection for the wood structure behind and materially link to the renovated pool deck and walls below. The integrated gutter passes through the wall into a hanging anchor-chain, eliminating downspouts and reflecting the owners’ love of the sea.

Solar panels on the roof generate electricity and warm the pool water.

Integral-colored stucco continues on both sides of the glass walls, blurring the visual transition between the cabana interior and the outdoor deck. Earth tones emerge from the ground while the white ceiling plane reflects late afternoon sun below the deep south-facing overhang.

The design transforms what was once a mountainside shelter into a sustainable oasis with extraordinary views from the craggy peaks to the vast ocean - pure California.