the Tinder Box

somewhere in Suburbia

Tinder Box is a small two-bedroom house on a prominent corner in an affluent neighborhood.

The house is an architecture of soft massing and personal expression, a comment on the polite mediocrity of its context—a neighborhood of repetitive houses, each one carefully negotiated into existence through layers of compromise.

The home is built of poured in place concrete.  Its exterior texture is a relief created from the figure-ground of Los Angeles: a literal imprint of the city pressed into the skin of the building. The concrete is tinted with pale blue sand, giving the otherwise massive form an unexpectedly soft presence.

The architecture is a statement of what could exist in a world without fear of individuality.

Inside, exposed natural concrete, wood cladding, and drywall establish a restrained palette.