How House
In close dialogue with the craft of the original architecture, How House by Taska Cleveland deploys subtle interventions and textural exuberance to quietly modernise a heritage-listed gem.
Hunkered into the hillside of a winding Los Angeles avenue, an historic home by a revered modernist architect contains an authentic interior reborn for contemporary life. Formed around the framework of the original construction, spaces are both structured and enticingly soft in honour of this formative abode.
“The project was an opportunity to rework an important historic residence to better support contemporary living.”
Thoughtfully reimagined by interior designer Taska Cleveland, How House is a showcase of the work of Rudolph M. Schindler who paved the way for a daring vernacular amid the Californian landscape. “The project was an opportunity to rework an important historic residence to better support contemporary living,” Cleveland explains. “The client wanted the home to feel more usable, comfortable and resolved for everyday life, with improved storage, clearer function and a greater sense of ease.” Approaching the scheme with the utmost attention to detail, each room has been forensically dissected in the pursuit of total immersion.
Wrapped in a soothing green enclosure that falls into the backdrop of its leafy surrounds, the dwelling comprises an orderly array of horizontal bands that move uninterrupted from outside to in. One can rely on these sweeping datums as a measure of the varied volumes that resonate throughout. Window heads, sills and transoms align to weighty off-form mantels and floating wall hung shelves as constants to this graphic formula. “The work required careful detailing so that new millwork and functional improvements could be incorporated without creating visual heaviness or compromising the clarity of the existing spaces,” Cleveland remarks.
Entering the upper level via a meandering narrow pathway of cascading vegetation, a luminous expanse of soaring rafters announces a wood-filled communal domain. New built-in sofas, cabinetry and a wet bar define one zone from the next beneath the gridded roofline for an environment that is both open and markedly intimate. The lower, more private quarters evoke an equal level of finesse in bespoke cantilevered desks, monolithic bathroom fixtures, and a colour-drenched headboard that echoes the quiet angularity found across the home. “These interventions helped clarify the program and make the house more usable while remaining measured in scale and consistent with the overall character of the interiors,” Cleveland describes.
A counterpart to the concrete, glass and timber palette of this 1925 residence, an array of likeminded hues harkens a profoundly tonal experience. “Redwood was sanded back to its natural finish, and new interventions in cherry and painted millwork were introduced alongside it,” Cleveland adds. Stained ruby cement floors converge with natural planks and shaggy area rugs as a celebrated podium for distinctive furniture pieces to come to the fore. Burnished surfaces, aged brass and antiqued bronze mirrors provide moments of enhanced patina for a resounding feeling of tactility.
Stained ruby cement floors converge with natural planks and shaggy area rugs as a celebrated podium for distinctive furniture pieces to come to the fore.
Emersed in the dappled verdancy that infiltrates the architecture, the dwelling is a joyful expression of a deep-rooted richness that only comes with time. How House embodies the fabric of its innovative origins while injecting the necessities of new age living – an ongoing evolution where layers of the past inspire newfound vignettes of colour, warmth and vibrancy.
