This 2,400 square-foot house is located on a steeply sloped hillside property in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The clients are a young couple: an artist and an arts administrator who needed a three-bedroom house with an open living area and a studio space.

Design concept and solution: One of several such projects by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, the design of the house addresses the familiar situation in Los Angeles of clients being compelled to develop difficult sites—steep uphill or downhill lots considered unsuitable for building by conventional standards—in order to build a new house within a modest budget. The proposed solution seeks a balance between economic concerns, engineering requirements, and creating an architectural experience particular to the site, a hillside covered with native shrubs, trees and grasses, with views of a nature reserve in one direction, and the city in the other.