Keiji Saito
Feature: Elevate from the Norm
March 1, 2007
When he is not playing polo on
his farm outside Buenos Aires, flying abroad twice a month to oversee projects
or returning to his home in Aachen, Germany, Gerhard Heusch can be found in Los
Angeles, where his architectural practice is based. The German-born architect’s
work has taken him to Japan, Polynesia, France and Portugal, though of late his
projects have been on continents closer to home. He has recently completed an
estate for a film director in Los Angeles, and a winery in Patagonia, Argentina,
where he is slated to build three houses nearby. Currently, he is designing a
boutique for a five-star hotel in Buenos Aires.
Top and Middle: The architect used materials consistent with the modern
vernacular—stucco, wood and glass—for the entrance. Top photograph by Federico Zignani. Bottom: The open-plan
living area, with a Bulthaup kitchen. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Given the global scope of his work, it is not surprising that
when Heusch set out to build his own home, he chose the International Style,
and, in particular, a sun-worshipping Southern California version popularized by
Richard Neutra.
"It’s very much in the tradition of midcentury contemporary
houses," says the architect of the glass-and-stucco home he built atop one
wooded acre in Beverly Hills. "Neutra opened up houses and brought the outside
inside. If you live in this climate, you can do that. I think that concept is
very much expressed in my house."
Indeed, the home has many of the hallmarks of the Neutra style. Flat-roofed
and mostly rectangular, with a smoothly troweled stucco exterior, the home
boasts extensive glass walls in both front and back. The design creates shaded
overhangs above, decks below and a glorious transparency that reveals the bright outdoors. "Wherever you are in
the house, you have a view of either the back or the front, which is an extended
view," he says. "Every room in the house, even the walk-in closet, is full of
natural light. There is no space where you need to turn on a light."
Yet there is one major distinction that keeps this from being a
Neutra-esque homage. The entire 3,200-square-foot house is elevated between 11
and 16 feet. Raising the house to treetop level provided some design benefits,
such as privacy, views and a carport, but the architect’s primary consideration
was to preserve the pristine land, which had never been built on.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Heusch designed the glass-and-steel dining table
to anchor the room and chose artwork such as an equestrian piece by Seock Son
(left). Photograph by Federico Zignani. (Click image to enlarge)
A traditional home would have flattened much of the rugged
hillside, required a retaining wall in back, and eliminated many of the majestic
oaks that frame the house. "I wanted to keep the site as natural as possible,"
Heusch explains. "This way, I didn’t have to import or export any soil."
Elevating the home also created a challenge: how to connect
all the inner workings of the house to the ground. Heusch solved that potential
problem by having the roof drains, electricity and plumbing funneled through the 10 steel columns that support the house.
If a home’s entrance sets the tone for what is to come, this
one embodies the architect’s best intentions. Here, the views begin, instead of
end, at the front door, which opens to reveal, through a glass wall, a large
oak. "You feel very much as if you are in a tree house," Heusch says. Adding to
that feeling is a 115-foot front terrace that runs the entire width of the home,
offering panoramas of the wooded canyons below.
advertisement
