Section

UnStack House is a ground-up residence on a steeply sloped lot in northeast Los Angeles. The house is comprised of a loose stack of boxes that cascade down the hillside, rotating and shifting to create outdoor spaces between and above that weave landscape into the experience of the building.

1. Front Deck 2. Main Entrance

These indoor-outdoor spaces have varied orientations with unique and unobstructed views to the San Gabriel mountains

1. Kitchen 2. Steps to Living Area

Public spaces flow through the house, connected by generous overlaps between each volume, creating dynamic thresholds that shift in both section and plan. The thresholds define informal spaces ‘between’ rooms that are loosely associated with both adjacent programs

When viewed from the street, alternating bands of color cohere into a clear stripe pattern that unites seven distinct volumes into a coherent whole

Living Room

Alternative Plan Options

The entrance is located 2 levels above the street at the middle of the sequence, allowing the private spaces to occupy both ends. By placing the kitchen, the house’s only fixed program, at the entry, the design allows all the other rooms to be used in a variety of ways and makes the house equally suitable for multiple families, or roommates, as for one

Dining Room

Stairs to Master Suite

Sunroom

Terraced Backyard

Working with difficult site constraints is central to the design of this house. While hillside homes frequently perch on hillsides, this house is embedded into it, balancing an ease of indoor-outdoor living with the iconic views unique to hillside living in Los Angeles

Stack House and UnStack House

Project team: David Freeland, Brennan Buck, Taka Tachibe, Alex Kim, Vivian Pham