The typical strategy for designing a home in Los Angeles starts by asking the following questions: what is the width and length of the lot, what types of homes sit in the neighborhood, what are the setbacks, where is the road, how many bedrooms and bathrooms do you wish to incorporate into the property. What if we could approached Los Angeles architecture from the inside and work our way out?
Let’s instead start by identifying the most important room in the home. Let’s say the room in question happens to be the bedroom but beyond the bedroom the entire experience of moving through the home begins with waking up from bed. We start by laying out the size of the bed we would like to place in the room. The rest of the home is designed around the functional transition between getting up and leaving for work. How much space is there on either side of the bed? How high are the windows relative to the night stand? Where is the restroom? How large of a closet do you need rather than want? Where is it relative to the restroom?
In this scenario, the setbacks don’t matter; rather they are simply a not placed on the plans to prove you are complying with the city’s requirements. In this scenario, the outside face as seen by the neighbors is secondary. How you enter the home is disregarded. What kind of home do you create?
saul s. archila 