Free Form Building Situated on an Industrial Site

This 3,000 square foot custom residence playfully uses traditional commercial and industrial materials. Using storage containers and steel found on-site in downtown LA, Office of Mobile Design creates an oasis without abandoning or disguising the industrial landscape that inspired the design and provided the materials.

Situated by the Brewery, a 300 loft live-work artist community, the large panels of glass throughout the house open up the space, allowing natural light to pour in and connecting it to the rest of the artists' community. In keeping with the artistic spirit of the community in which this house is being built, the project has been a collaborative experiment between the client, Richard Carlson, and the fabricators using a design/build approach where creative and structural decisions were made as the house was being constructed.

This home literally grows up from the land around it, engaging with and incorporating the industrial history of downtown LA through the use of found on-site materials. Just as this area of LA has reinvented itself, so too do these materials. The grain trailers are transformed into a koi fish pond and a lap pool. The large storage containers are used to create and separate the dwelling spaces within the house. Each storage container has its own individual function, one is the entertainment and library area, another is a dining room and office space over looking the garden below, another serves as the bathroom and laundry room and yet another is the master bedroom, a visually dramatic protruding volume that wraps around the upper part of the house. This unfussy space allows for the dynamic interplay of materials and forms, the contrast of corrugated metals, industrial containers and exposed wooden beams all highlighted with warm, calm green hues.

All of the containers used in the house have been altered in surprising ways. Some have been severed into separate pieces, while others have been added onto, layered or wrapped, showing the myriad design possibilities in repurposing these materials. There are wrapped design elements throughout the house including a 12-foot high steel plate fence that wraps around the entire site. At one point it lifts up, stretching to become a canopy that gives shade to the entrance, creating the feeling of the ground plane being tilted upward. Here, recycled materials are not just practical and cost effective, but they create a unique, dramatic architectural vocabulary. The innovative combination of recycled storage containers, grain trailers, steel and glass will result in a house that is highly sculptural, open and LA modern.