Private Residence in Los Angeles Inspired By The Modern Stahl House

Bellgave, a private residence in Los Angeles, is situated above Laurel Canyon Boulevard on a cul-de-sac in the Hollywood Hills. With its elevated position at the edge of a steep promontory, the site offers unobstructed panoramic views from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. Its north-south orientation aligns with the grid of the city basin below, and the tone for its architectural context is set by mid-century landmarks such as Pierre Koenig’s landmark Stahl House (Case Study House No. 22), which can be glimpsed on a nearby promontory to the west. Cape Town-based architects SAOTA engaged with the modernist precedent set by the Stahl House and other ground-breaking Los Angeles Case Study Houses in the design of Bellgave, reprising and advancing some of their pioneering innovations that forged the distinctive indoor-outdoor lifestyle that became synonymous with the city itself, and a distinctive, climatically appropriate regional modernism. By raising a platform on pillars and caissons, the arc