ARCH TOUR FEST: A+M HOUSE

Photo Credit: Eric Owen Moss Architects

Arch Tour Fest: A+M House – 10:30am

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

Tour Organizer: Eric Owen Moss Architects

The A + M House is owned by Eric Owen Moss.

You think you know. And then you don’t. You suddenly recognize. And then you won’t. Here a rule? There not so. Square in the sky. Absent below. Roof’s rectangular. Basement’s not so. Perhaps symmetrical. Dissolves, but slow. Walls incline, Not all we’ve got. Asymmetrical. Yes, then it’s not, From the canal on the north, To the end of the lot. Window’s a piece. Windows in pieces. Made out of rubber, Including the creases. The sea’s to the west, Sails all around, A building of options. The tension abounds. 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.

Building Credits:

Architect: Eric Owen Moss Architects
Architect Project Team: Eric Owen Moss, Eric McNevin, Raul Garcia, Michael Robin, Andrew Wright
Structural Engineer: Nast Enterprises, Hooman Nastarin
Photography: Eric Owen Moss Architects

Tour Led by:

Eric Owen Moss, FAIA

Eric McNevin, AIA

Parking Info:

Adequate street parking within a short walking distance. Pay parking lot at the intersection of Entrada Drive and Short Street.

Creative Solutions for Complex Site Conditions
Implementation of Compound Curving Surfaces
Integration of Digital Fabrication in Construction
Innovation in Waterproofing and Building Cladding