Inspired by both early California Modernism and Asian traditions, this family home is situated within a park-like setting in Pacific Palisades, California. The architectural programming prioritizes areas to commune, as well as spaces for privacy and reflection. An homage to the work of architects like Rudolf Schindler, the home is finished in a sophisticated, natural material palette – swaths of cool white plaster juxtaposed with rich woods and stone – and features a modernist treatment of windows with large expanses of glass overlooking and giving access to the gardens.

With respect to volume, the home is composed of a cluster of interlocking pavilions surrounding a large, two-story atrium. The atrium, while formally beautiful, also plays an important role in the flow of the family’s daily life. The space connects to a dining room and generous living areas on the first floor, functioning as a semi-public realm where the family gathers and entertains. Surrounded by other rooms and lit by clerestory windows, it almost feels like an exterior courtyard that, over time, has been covered by a roof. An open walkway on the upper level serves as a transition between the atrium and more private spaces of the home.

Nature is everywhere, an opportunity made possible, in part, by limiting the footprint of the house and allowing the landscape to occupy a large percentage of the site. Each of the property’s four main gardens represent a unique travel experience in Asia. The gardens meet the house in a series of roofless rooms and create special places nested within other spaces. There is a constant give and take between solid and void, nature and building, inside and outside. When a sliding wall opens, the pond enters the interior visually and acoustically. Corner windows come together without frames, further dissolving barriers between interior and exterior. Nature enters and retreats as gently and as constantly as the nearby tide ebbs and flows.