One of the main premises guiding the development of Alma Switch House, designed by Brooks + Scarpa, was the spatial connection between the interior and exterior. In this sense, the entire interior space can be appreciated from the entrance courtyard. The living rooms, located on the second floor, surround the central courtyard and are designed as multifunctional spaces dedicated to entertaining, capable of accommodating a large number of guests.
As a passive solar protection solution, the east side of the house features a three-dimensional anodized aluminum screen wall that alters its appearance depending on the time of day. This strategy provides privacy to the interior spaces surrounding the central courtyard while simultaneously controlling intense sunlight, making the building more efficient.
Alma Switch House by Brooks + Scarpa. Photograph by Lawrence Scarpa.
Project description by Brooks + Scarpa
Designed for a couple with three young children, this three-story compact house on a small 30’ x 90’ lot is located on a hillside walk street with direct access to the beach just a couple of blocks away. Strict local ordinances and codes dictate maximum lot coverage, maximum height, minimum open exterior areas and a host of other restrictions that have resulted in typical repeated housing typologies in the area.
As such, most buildings include large balconies pushed to the extreme exterior edges of the buildings to meet the code required open space, then the remaining interior lot area is filled solid with building mass, resulting in bulky block-like structures full of perimeter balconies.
The Alma house design takes the exact opposite approach. By incorporating a multi-purpose central courtyard in the middle of the site, all rooms within the house are able to have large amounts of glazing with operable windows allowing abundant natural light and air-flow from nearby ocean breezes to pass easily thru the home. This strategy also pushes the interior occupied spaces to the extreme outer edges of the property taking better advantage of ocean and sunset views while breaking the massing of the structure into smaller more appropriately scaled forms.
From the central entry courtyard, the entire space from the small walk street garden to the living spaces above can be seen; the first clue of the home’s spatial connection between inside and out. These spaces are designed for entertainment and the sliding glass doors throughout enhances the harmonic relationship of the main rooms, allowing the owners to host many guests without the feeling of being overburdened. The children can simultaneously play outdoors while under adult supervision from the rooms surrounding the courtyard.
A custom anodized aluminum three-dimensional screen wall on the east side provided privacy to the spaces surrounding the courtyard from the busy street outside while that makes the facade shimmer as people pass by. Sunlight and bright lighting conditions make the façade go soft and silver in just a few seconds. It’s a quick-moving phenomenon that bends light and casts shadows depending on the time of day. These passive strategies alone make this building more than 40% more efficient than California Title 24 and a conventionally designed similar structure.
