6.17.17
On June 17th, the Modern Architecture + Design Society opens the doors to the 2017 Silicon Valley Modern Home Tour.
This is your chance to tour the properties, meet the architects, and talk to the homeowners of some of the area’s most forward-looking home designs!
TICKET PRE-SALES ARE OVER, BUT DON’T WORRY! YOU CAN STILL GET TICKETS AT THE DOOR. HERE’S HOW:
- Download and print the official Tour Map here:
http://bit.ly/silval2017printmap - Visit any Tour house between 11am and 5pm
- Purchase tickets at the door for $40 each.
- Enjoy the day supporting local architecture + design!
Scripps Avenue
This home renovation takes the original mid-century modern design esthetic to the next level and the 21st century. The home features state-of the-art radiant floor heating and innovative green building strategies throughout. It is located in the Eichler Greenmeadow tract which is listed on the nation register of historic places.
Mora Drive
In the heart of Silicon Valley, this house boasts an amazing view of the Bay, and the rolling hills. The home is organized to best frame the view to the Bay in three parallel bands. Past a small private vineyard, the gracious entry court ushers you in under a low protective eave. Beyond, the dramatic double height space opens up to a dining room and then stepping down to the living room and the pool beyond. To the left is the kitchen and family room, both with access to the view, and to the right is the first of two master suites, and a more intimate library with its own patio. The palette of dark brown woods with marble floors and white walls give a distinctly glamorous feel to this home.
Upstairs a second master suite has its own balcony and three children’s bedrooms are on the other side of the open space. Downstairs a day-lit recreation room with a wine cellar along with a home theater and gym offers every amenity.
From the pool / spa terrace, a pathway leads past the infinity edge of the pool to the guest house, beyond which terraced lawns step down through the oaks.
St Francis Way
San Carlos Mid-Century Modern Rescue
The previous owner of this 1960s modern home covered over the walls of glass with plywood and installed a massive awning at the rear of the house, blocking out most light and connection with the outdoors. The original interior had a maze-like layout starting with a small entry area and moving into too many hallways. In short, the house felt dark and closed-in. Nevertheless the new owners saw the potential in the home, purchased it, and hired Klopf Architecture to help them realize the potential. Today it is an open, light and bright, indoor-outdoor, clean and simple, modernist home.
When touring the home with the new owners, Klopf saw immediate possibilities to reconfigure the house into a main living space including kitchen living and dining, combining what what used to be the old kitchen area and the under-utilized living room. The old kitchen was combined with a family room to the rear that became the current office. The kitchen itself moved as Klopf designed in a utility “core” with pantry, laundry, and mechanical systems where the kitchen used to be. In the bedroom wing, the master suite was improved with a walk-through closet that leads to a bathroom with skylights above the sinks.
The house was opened up to the studs throughout, laid out anew, provided with all new mechanical systems, roof, wall board, windows, insulation – the whole house is pretty much new, but on the same footprint as the old one.
Removing the old owner’s plywood, and also increasing the openness with large windows, long folding wall systems, and wide sliding glass doors, the Klopf Architecture team connected the landscaped patios and courtyards by Growsgreen Landscape Design to the interior living areas of the house. Natural cedar siding and plain concrete slabs, along with a feature wall of smooth plaster, complement the lush plantings.
Chace Drive
The architecture and interior design of the house is intended to harmonize modern and Japanese design, to fit to the culture of my client.
A Mid Century Modern Transformation, this project features an open floor layout with a lot of light to fit the modern lifestyle. Most of the house structure was left and less than 200 sf was added to a design that respects its historic style and the neighborhood’s scale.
By taking advantage of the natural slope of the lot and designing one horizontal roof line, the residence gained different heights throughout.
From private to public the ceiling height rises so at the highest point it can handle an office loft. Continuity and visual connection were emphasized within the building program; each space is connected to another, but each space also has its own boundaries, deliniated not only by ceiling height, but also through materials, natural light, light fixtures and structural elements.
The entrance is designed to stand out by using a butterfly roof and different siding material. The bright orange cement board siding on the fireplace is the focal point right as you enter, and small orange under kitchen cabinets repeat this theme, creating a further consistency.
Farm Lane
This LEED Platinum, Net Zero Energy single-family home celebrates its – and our – existence in the intersection between earth and sky. In response to a pre-existing graded topography with an artificial elevated plateau, one arrives low onto the site, and ascends through carved spaces into a series of airy glass pavilions. These indoor-outdoor living spaces are anchored by rammed earth walls and sheltered under kite-like floating roofs. Extensive use of glass, much of which is operable, connects the interior to the landscape, meeting the owner’s request to feel as though they are living in a garden.
The owners proposed LEED Platinum certification and Net Zero Energy. With that as a starting point, the project strove to integrate ecological responsibility holistically into the design, such that sustainability performance and architectural expression become one inseparable whole.
The two principal tectonic components are the rammed earth walls and the folded roof planes. The walls are built using soil harvested on site. They provide thermal mass, while regulating interior temperatures. These heavy earthen walls bracket space within a seamless landscape, demarcating public and private zones while providing a sensual tactility.
The floating roof planes also integrate multiple sustainable design strategies. Their asymmetric butterfly forms vector interior spaces outward to the landscape. The folded shape tips solar panels toward the sun. Their valleys direct rainwater to collection cisterns, efficiently draining the roof surface without extensive plumbing. Their soaring, lightweight forms inspire ones eyes upward to the sky, and juxtapose with the anchoring mass of the earthen walls – strengthening both elements through their mutual contrast.
