Located atop a mountain with distant views of the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara coast, the design for this house takes a deferential attitude to the immediate landscape and the profundity of the panoramic views.
Project Name: Rincon House
Studio Name: ANACAPA Architecture
Location: Carpinteria, California
Design team: Tony Schonhardt, Kristin Stoyanova, Shahab Parsa
Renderings: Places Studio
The home is composed of a series of horizontal planes nestled into the hillside to create shelter while maximizing the view and exposure to the ocean and city views below. The earthen roofs help the structures to nearly disappear as one approaches them from above, only to slowly reveal themselves as a series of eroded masses nestled within the hillside.
A singularly expressive moment marks the primary entry point of the 4,200-square-foot home, where the erosion of the masses is most pronounced. What remains is the soaring horizontal element, defining the entry but not yet giving way to interior space. This blurring of interior and exterior space further belies the conventional approach to a site with such stunning vistas.
Inside, rather than immediately introducing the full view all at once, provocative framed views of the sky, curated courtyards, and intimate inward-looking gardens are provided. Ultimately, the grand view is revealed as one descends to the primary living space. However, instead of creating a disconnected view of nature so often found in contemporary designs, the distant view is complemented by the proximity to nature through an internal courtyard nestled into the hillside, creating a curated physical connection to the natural elements.
