Terracotta House

The firm, led by Mira Henry and Mattehw Au, began by sketching a plan to build an ADU that would thoughtfully reconfigure the backyard of the client’s property. The house on the site is like many in LA, developed in the 1930s in the Spanish Revival style. It is a beautiful little home with many romantic features – an interior courtyard, deep arches, and the original roof made of layered terracotta tile. Less desirable is the organization of the garage and driveway, which broke up the backyard, making it more for a car than for living and gathering. The first move was to reverse the layout of the yard and building structure by locating an ADU at the back corner of the lot to unlock enough space to build a pool and large patio.

In these early phases of the project, the design team also began discussions around the use of terracotta tile to create something that would resonate with existing context and pay homage to traditions of craft in architecture. Both design partners have a host of experiences in material fabrication, including studying handmade and industrial ceramics. Their experiences led them to collaborate with the Ohio based company Sandkuhl Clayworks, a fourth-generation family-owned company that produces large structural and ornamental clay parts for buildings all over the country. Early calls with Sandkuhl were met with excitement and generosity as the project moved from sketch to construction details. What unfolded from the creative collaboration was a method of creating a new tile by splitting a standard three chamber terracotta hollow block. The process involved wire cutting the units right after extruding and while the clay was still wet. The result is a clay unit with dramatic vertical ribs on one side and a flat face on the other. Once fired, the tiles were palleted and shipped to the design team’s studio workspace in downtown LA, where each tile was coated with a deep green masonry pigment.

The vision for the façade was to create a small but mighty building – one that would anchor the lot and provide a grounded presence. In many ways, the architects were inspired by the relaxed nature of the context with overgrown landscape and lapped clay tile roofs. Rather than grouting the large tiles to the exterior, the architects designed a two-layered aluminum frame that the tiles could sit on like a shelf – giving the units a raw presence like a big, casual stack of material. The play of shadow on the deeply grooved green tiles invokes landscape qualities of texture, tone, visual depth, and calm.

The interior is also treated as a case study for material experimentation, beginning with the design of a concrete floor that is a recipe of green tint and large stone aggregate. The floor, with in-ground radiant heating, is polished smooth, while the base curb is left rough with an exposed aggregate finish. During construction, the design team worked closely with the builder to achieve the base building. In order to execute certain bespoke details, the architects rolled up their sleeves and fabricated a select set of components themselves, including the aggregate base board, the walnut wall panels and window trim. The wood paneling is treated with a pigmented Danish Wood Oil from the company, Linolie, which was selected for its capacity to create a nuanced color effect. A green oil applied to the warmth of walnut combine to create a silvery green finish with purple undertones. This quality drove the delicate palette of the cabinetry, stone, and tile throughout the interior.

For the landscape, the architect team worked with a long-standing collaborator, Phil Davis to develop a palette of California native plants. From a site planning standpoint, the landscape is thought of as an outdoor room, held by a tailored perimeter wall and a large patio the architects like to think of as a ‘brick carpet’. The raised coping of the pool is generous enough for lounging and creates a crisp edge against which a loose surround of gravel and wooly native plants can grow wild.

The journey of Terracotta House & Landscape offered a test space for Current Interests to take risks and build collaborative relationships with many material craftspeople. Now that it is complete, the backyard, which was once dominated by hot pavement, is now full of the scent of sage, the sound of bees, and the interplay of color, tone and texture that boldly come together in the project.