A+M House / Eric Owen Moss Architects

Text description provided by the architects. The A+M House is located in Santa Monica Canyon next to a canal, a block from the Pacific Ocean. Two adventurous teenagers and one adult are the residents.

The exterior shape of the house transforms vertically – from rectangular at the roof to a variously curving plan at the ground – ‘the guitar’. 

The perimeter walls are in continuous transformation between those two plan shapes. That change in shape is particularly evident at the corners which begin with a 90-degree plan at the roof and end as a 10-foot radius at the ground plane. 

The compound-curving exterior walls are produced by CNC milling all the exterior studs of the house.  The milled lumber was fabricated through a direct-to-construction Rhino 3d model.

It was essential that the exterior walls, roofs, and soffits precisely preserve the milled shape.  An industrial coating called polyurea was applied – a single-component covering that provided both waterproofing and exterior finish, the first time this rubberized coating has been used on an exterior over wood construction.

The four-story house is organized around a central atrium crossed by a bridge at each level and including a stair to all floors and the roof deck which looks over the sea.  A theatre, symposium area, and multiple bedrooms and bathrooms surround the stair and bridges.

Two parking spaces are covered by curving, bowl-shaped soffits that form the rubberized exterior of the sloping interior theatre seating one level above.