ARCH TOUR FEST: HOUSE IN LOS ANGELES 5

Photo Credit: Marten Elder

Arch Tour Fest: House in Los Angeles 5 – 9:30am

Additional information regarding the tour and check-in process will be emailed directly to registrants 24 hours before the event.

Tour Organizer: Danielle Rago + Claus Benjamin Freyinger

The Los Angeles Design Group (The LADG) has designed House in Los Angeles 5 for This by That co-founder Danielle Rago and her family. The home extends an existing body of work by The LADG that defies and reorganizes some of the architectural tropes associated with LA suburbia, upending traditional notions of how a house should be organized and how it should look. ⁠ ⁠ The LADG began this project by cutting the plan with two concrete footpaths from the outside-in, splitting the property into four unique quadrants which are held together by a central double-height volume that serves as an interior courtyard and gathering place for the family. Three bedrooms are housed in the two large volumes at the front two quadrants, kitchen and service areas are housed in OSB-paneled volumes in the middle, and the living spaces are situated at the rear.⁠ ⁠ This sequence deliberately produces an “empty center”, whereby large volumes delineate a double-height gathering space that roughly frames out the kitchen, a seating nook, and rear entry. Says The LADG co-principal Benjamin Freyinger, “The aim is to evacuate the center of the house and put a cultural proposition in its place–a new way to think about how and where to come together as a family. Here, we are taking out the hearth and replacing it with air, as an abstract idea and quite literally as a means to achieve a passively cooled interior climate.” The central space functions as a connector between the private bedroom spaces in the front of the house, and the public social spaces at the back. It also seamlessly brings the outdoors in, through a series of doors positioned on the four main axes of the house. ⁠ ⁠

Building Credits:

Architect: The Los Angeles Design Group

Project Lead: Remi McClain

Project Team: Kenji Hattori-Forth, Jonathan Rieke, Son Vu

Engineer: Nous Engineering

Project Lead: Omar L. Garza

General Contractor: Engine Construction

Project Manager: Brain McCabe

Photography: Marten Elder

Interior Styling: Jason Baird

Landscape Designer: Big Red Sun

Tour Led by:

Claus Benjamin Freyinger, AIA Associate, Co-Founder and Principal, The LADG

Bio:

Benjamin Freyinger is co-principal of The LADG, an award-winning architectural practice based in Los Angeles, and a lecturer at the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. He is a frequent guest critic at institutions across the United States. His built work and architectural proposals focus on how buildings can become active participants in the built environment almost akin to human subjects, and the relationship of academic research to architectural practice. Recent projects include a series of five houses in Los Angeles, a retreat in rural Maine, a compound in the Mount Washington suburbs of Los Angeles, and an exhibition design for the Resnick Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Benjamin has received a number of recognitions, including two P/A awards, the League Prize from the Architectural League of New York, and multiple citations from the Los Angeles chapter of the AIA.

Danielle Rago, Co-founder, This By That

Bio:

Danielle is a co-founder of This by That, an agency that represents architects who challenge the status quo. She holds a Master’s degree in Architecture History and Critical Thinking from the Architectural Association, London, which she credits with nurturing her passion for architecture’s entrepreneurial and business dimensions.

Learning Units:

Sustainability

Daylighting

Adaptive reuse

Tour Instructions:

Tour organizers request that attendees wear booties throughout all interior spaces.

Parking Instructions:

Street parking as available. Please do not park in driveway.