Sponge-scape presents the opportunity to experiment with a common condition of the Los Angeles residential landscape: an infill (previously undeveloped) hillside site at the end of a cul-de-sac. The proposed solution attempts to densify without interfering with the existing neighbors; multiply occupiable ground while maximizing views; and provide openness despite the closure of a dead-end subdivision.

While appearing low and stealth-like from the front entry side, the house expands (both up and down) as it moves back toward the rear downslope of the site. On the front and sides of the house, this otherwise solid mass is interrupted with intensely colored linings that suggest an interior has been exposed on the exterior (e.g., at the entry court and garage). From the hillside, the mass becomes permeable and almost sponge-like due to the exterior decks, pool island, and courtyard.
 
In addition to maximizing the interior use area allowed (here, 4000 SF) on the 50% lot area coverage permitted, the house surprisingly provides an additional 1600 SF of exterior decks, that produce the buoyant, “sponge-effect” while creating multiple view lines. Just as the Dutch invent artificial land through a system of polders, sponge-scape generates what can be understood as polders in the sky, a reverse terracing of the site: sculpting ground out of thin air. While the code only allows two levels at any given point, sponge-scape is disposed across three primary levels (and really six, if one includes partial levels). This is made possible by a spiraling or snake-like circulation, where, at any one point, only two levels are simultaneously present.

This peeling up and down of occupiable surfaces allows the accommodation of disparate activities and groups: the uppermost and most private master suite, direct access to a lower home-office, a guest wing for elderly parents and extended family, a directly accessible entertainment theatre, and a trajectory that leads through the dining and living to the exterior (but central) pool island. While spatial separation is made possible by this branching network of circulation, the overlapping of levels also allows for visual connection, intimacy, and openness. Taking a cue from its context, it is almost as if the house is made up of a series of scaled down cul-de-sacs manipulated in three-dimensions, but in this case producing infinite variability and connection rather than monotony and closure. Here, the most private and domestic moments quickly reconnect to the most collective and urban.

(ALL Renderings: P XS)