Castellamare

A house that climbs to its roof to live outdoors

Castellammare is a neighbourhood in Pacific Palisades, on the western edge of Los Angeles, where the streets climb the hillside and the afternoon sun arrives low, long and orange. On Castellammare Drive, among palms and white walls, the project proposes a new two-storey house with the Pacific horizon behind it.

The ground floor is more than service space: alongside the garage, the foyer and the laundry room sits a complete ADU — living room, dining room, kitchen and primary bedroom — able to work on its own, with its own entrance and its own life. The upper floor gathers what is shared: a living room with fireplace, a kitchen with island and bar, a communal workspace and three bedrooms, one of them with its own west-facing terrace.

Above, the roof is program rather than finish: outdoor kitchen and dining, barbecue, fireplace, intensive non-trafficable planting and a solar farm under a light slatted structure. The fifteen-foot rear setback fixed the position of the house on the lot and pushed the approach toward the street, where the garage opens beneath the volume and timber louvres filter the sun across the glazing.