Architect Katy Barkan’s renovation-expansion of a 1940s bungalow in Los Angeles is full of nuanced paradox. Like the attention-catching rays of an asterisk, the crisp, radiating lines of her addition—its roof ridges and troughs—converge mid-facade, where the house’s existing and new sections meet. Yet the extension is also quiet, almost deferential: a pale-gray monolith that picks up the low-rise cadence of this residential streetscape. “It simultaneously stands out and fits in,” says Barkan, who teaches architectural design at UCLA. With this inaugural project of her firm, Now Here, she has embraced the language of Los Angeles’ ubiquitous, modest single-family house, yet deftly subverted it, engaging its material palette and construction methods while nimbly tweaking its familiar forms.
The result is “1/2 House.” Or perhaps it should be called half-and-half house—or one/two house, since its exterior composition toggles between being one volume or two. The original Monopoly-piece bungalow and its side-by-side addition—both stucco-clad, balloon-frame construction with asphalt-shingled pitched roofs—merge compatibly, while remaining distinct in color, form, and character. Most striking is the new roof’s inversion, with its V-shaped valley, instead of a peaking ridge. This geometric feat—almost imperceptibly sweeping up into a new second story toward the back—allows for vertical expansion (plus excellent drainage) without disrupting the streetscape’s scale and gabled rhythms. The new facade essentially ends in half a gable (inspiring the name “1/2 House”), gesturing toward the upswing of the neighboring peak.
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