Architect 2016-01

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Hank Koning, FAIA, and Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, of
Koning Eizenberg Architecture eschew grand theories
and expressive modes of design. The façade of the
3,100-square-foot house they designed on 12th Street
in Santa Monica, Calif., is, according to Eizenberg,
“just the outline of what you could build according
to zoning and setback requirements.” That the white
stucco face, etched against the California sky, recalls
a barn in a manner that evokes the open, rough-hewn
character of the house’s interior, while alluding to and
abstracting the various gambrels and gables of the
eclectic group of its surrounding houses, is, she says, a
fortuitous accident.
The clients wanted something more than the onestory
Spanish Colonial Revival bungalow they owned
around the corner, and less than the McMansions that
are rapidly replacing similar neighborhood structures.
The wife grew up in a traditional Quaker home in
Philadelphia, the husband in a Los Angeles midcentury
modern house. They wanted, according to the wife,
“something simple, not too large nor too cold; a place
where I could always feel part of the family even if
we’re all off on our own.”
Eizenberg and Koning’s solution was to make
the house appear as a single, unified mass, cladding
its sides with shingle shakes that will weather in time.
The open-plan ground level includes a living area with
a heated concrete floor and plain plaster walls. This
room runs the full length of the house to the rear
garden and steals “borrowed views,” as Eizenberg calls
them, through windows shaded and sheltered from
the street with movable panels of ipe wood slats. Past
a kitchen island and a counter suspended in a bay
window, the space opens to the rear. To either side
of the living room, the architects added “saddlebags,”
(borrowing Charles Moore’s term) that contain a study
and TV room to the south and an entry, toilet, and
pantry to the north. Both the staircase to the upper
floor and the front of the kitchen island are covered
with pegboard, which Eizenberg imagines may host
either art or creations by the clients’ children.
Upstairs, the three children’s rooms line up to the
south of a high, skylit corridor and gathering space,
leaving the north side for one shared bathroom and a
utility space. The master suite takes up the floor’s west
side, gaining views over the street and beyond. A guest
suite occupies the space above a garage at the back of
the rear yard.
Modesty and simplicity guide the house’s design,
from the arrangement of rooms to finishes and
straightforward detailing. The house is familiar in
its shapes, modern and functional in its forms, and
comfortable in its materials. “I never bought that styles,
whether modern or historical, had an ethical value,”
Eizenberg says. “We just want to build what works.
This is a house where we would want to live.”
Section A-A1
Ground-Floor Plan
Second-Floor Plan
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A1
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