Diller Scofidio + Renfro
ECOLOGICAL STEPPING STONE:
The landscape plan captures the creative potential of the region’s climate
and ecology. It builds upon the native vegetation of Chaparral and
Coastal Sage Brush to re-establish the site’s biodiversity and promote
resilience to drought and fire. It also introduces robust verdant orchards
and gardens and, consequently, a variety of micro-climates and atmospheres
around the houses.
The site is stitched together with paths and trails that connect the
houses through terraced orchards, switchbacks, and habitat corridors.
Across the site, the many outdoor atmospheres provide comfort and
stimulation for guests in the throes of creative production, both in collaborative
exchange and in focused solitary endeavor.
Landscape terraces expand to form courtyards, which spill into the
houses offering lush green oases that are shaded from the sun. Meanwhile,
uphill breezes flow through these spaces and over evaporative
pools adding comfort through passive cooling and ventilation. At each
of the houses, aromatic gardens scent the air, carried by afternoon and
evening breezes. Edible gardens provide seasonal produce for the immediate
Annapurna community to enjoy. The cultivated wilderness blends
habitat islands and threads of green into the native landscape. Select
areas are sustainably cultivated in relation to topography, program,
views, hydrology of the site, and sun exposure. The intent is to enjoy a
lush landscape closer to the touch with minimal maintenance across the
site.
Lacing the Panoramahouse and linking the three lower houses are lush
pathways that provide additional privacy. They harvest and store the
site’s entire watershed in order to sustain irrigation demands throughout
the year. Connecting the houses are: a terraced orchard on the
southern slope that provides a structured way to move under shade
during the day and sit outside for stargazing at night; a switchback trail
to the east cutting through the natural water basin stabilized with oak
shrub and offering a place for Venice to run and find shelter during the
hot afternoons near the waterhole; and to the west, a restored Chaparral
and Coastal Sage Shrub biodiversity preserve, offering a private
hiking path and areas for camping and spotting larger stepping stone
species.
WILD LIFE
Invite, Observe, Document
The site’s 8 acres lie just inside the eastern edge of the greater Santa
Monica Mountains Conservancy Zone, a wildly diverse and enormous
habitat corridor that remains contiguous enough for mountain lions
to be seen in the Hollywood Hills. Griffith Park and Trebek Open Space
Park are biodiversity hot spots that extend the habitat corridor of the
Conservancy Zone farther east of the site.
The design intent is for the 8 acres to provide a series of native landscape
pockets that will act as ecological stepping stones and connect a
habitat corridor between the Conservancy Zone and Parks for creatures
as large as the bobcat and peregrine falcon and as small as the silvery
blue butterfly and wrentit. Trails, lookouts, and eco-pocket landscapes
will restore the richness of the Chaparral landscape and replace the
invasive grasses that dominate the site and are a high fire risk.
A ‘Hemingway’ lookout point and a critter cam at the ‘watering hole’
will offer the ability to observe and document the vitality of these
nocturnal landscapes, alive with big cats, owls, and bats. A bird observation
area would showcase the drama of native species such as the
loggerhead shrike impaling a lizard or the mischievous cactus wren’s
striped and speckled feathers. Lastly, architectural succulents will
blend and transition from the restored environments to the surrounding
landscape matrix.
WIND AND SUN
Generate, Cool, Breathe
The Los Angeles region has over 200 days of sun a year. This unique
quality will not only be harnessed through solar cell technologies, but
also through passive measures that can energize a space.
Terraces, courtyards and pools bathed in sun are lined with aromatic
species of plants that provide each space and house with its own signature
scent. Fragrances vary from spicy or sultry -such as white sage
or artemesia- to floral and sweet -such as jasmine or citrus blossom.
Aromatic gardens will be planted along pedestrian paths at varying
elevations to create breezeways through the site and extra heat from
the houses. Many of these fragrant species in the breezeway will attract
future pollinators such as the silvery blue butterfly to ensure resilience
and build upon the existing biodiversity.
The infinity and evaporative cooling pools integrate thermal solar cells
under a thin layer of water to increase energy production by ~9%, but
more importantly to infuse these technologies into the space unnoticed
to the eye. The sun’s energy is then used to facilitate hot water
pre-heating demand of programmed spaces to reduce the overall energy
consumption of the campus.
WATER
Collect, Saturate, Re-use
In developing a path to sustainability, water is the most critical resource
to manage in California. The region is water scarce and the public water
infrastructure system is the largest consumer of electricity in the State.
The site strategy develops an open loop system that collects, stores,
re-uses and treats water through various gravity feed, no-energy distribution
networks. The proposed system reduces water consumption by
over 50% and will be a positive participant in restoring the health of the
Santa Monica Bay watershed.
Storm water is harvested from roofs and hardscapes into cisterns and
conveyed through bio-swales to water flourishing gardens that frame,
enhance and protect the built environment with fire-resistant vegetation.
These lush garden envelopes will produce a variety of atmospheres,
inviting and sheltering native birds and butterflies. For example,
Mexican Elderberry is a shrub with fragrant white flowers and
electric blue berries that attracts songbirds, and may also be used in a
natural dye and in an immune-boosting tea.
EARTH
Terrace, Grow, Eat
On average 190,000 gallons of water will be harvested and stored on site
throughout the year. With this water supply, approximately 5,000 sq ft of
terraced gardens and orchards are planned without the use of supplemental
city water. Composting and aquaponics on site will help create
closed loop systems that cycle water and nutrients more efficiently.
The orchards and switchbacks are strategically placed as erosion control
measures with accessible trails of 15% slope or less that loop from high
ground to low ground facilitating activities such as hiking, riding, or
star gazing. The orchards will yield a range of food options from avocados
to olives.
There is a rich potential to grow a diversity of food year round in a city
with over 200 days of sunshine a year and a Mediterranean climate.
Taking pleasure in the process of growing, cooking, eating, and sharing
meals is at the heart of the local slow food movement. Gardens may
also be specialized for energizing or entertaining, such as a medicinal
herb garden or salsa garden. A movable “chicken tractor” will be rotated
through gardens to keep pests down and add fertility to the soil, while
also producing fresh eggs perennially available.