Hide Out

LOS ANGELES, CA

3,600 SF
2 Story
Interior Design & Architecture
Rennovation Construction
Residential

An expressive stairway serves as the home’s sculptural statement leading from the entry into the living room, which slightly protrudes into the walkway.  The shifting shapes and angles are in homage to Gehry as well as to Jean, who features flowing arabesques in his detailed work.  Brunn instilled a feeling of openness and continuum throughout the first-floor home/work space by creating a gallery-like setting for changing art displays.  He added new windows and re-thought Gehry’s rectangular skylight by outfitting it with stretch fabric to create an ambient glow, and installing LED lights to emit color.

A 14' x 12' pivoting wall at the far end of the house hides or reveals a multi-purpose room and library.  A built-in murphy bed emerges from the floor-to-ceiling bookcase to transform the library into a guest bedroom.  The library offers varied storage areas, shelving for books, and closed cupboards.  Taking cues from Japanese tea houses, Brunn designed a wooden box-like volume within that space for a variety of activities: social gatherings, meditation, or music performance.  A lush Japanese garden is visible and reachable through the glass sliders and features traditional plant species.

Upstairs, natural light seeps into the stairwell tunnel through a glass-enclosed, open-air meditative garden accessible through the master bathroom.  Previously boxed in with no access to the outdoors, this area was designed as a garden space by Brunn to acknowledge Gehry’s original intention to make the area an encased greenhouse.  This respite organizes the second level, and expands the otherwise small landing.