Here are thirty of the most exciting new houses and five audacious projects from a region that has always been a crucible for experimentation in residential design, They express the needs and desires of fearless individuals who decided to please themselves, flout conventional wisdom, and collaborate with talented architects. They respond to their varied sites- from the canyons of Santa Barbara south to the mountains of San Diego County; to slivers of the ocean- front, precipitous slopes, leafy suburban estates, and bustling commercial streets. Modest or grand, expansive or tightly-compressed, angular or sensuously curved, they offer a cross-section of the best of contemporary design,and are linked only by their openness to a benign climate.

Here are thirty of the most exciting new houses and five audacious projects from a region that has always been a crucible for experimentation in residential design, They express the needs and desires of fearless individuals who decided to please themselves, flout conventional wisdom, and collaborate with talented architects. They respond to their varied sites- from the canyons of Santa Barbara south to the mountains of San Diego County; to slivers of the ocean- front, precipitous slopes, leafy suburban estates, and bustling commercial streets. Modest or grand, expansive or tightly-compressed, angular or sensuously curved, they offer a cross-section of the best of contemporary design,and are linked only by their openness to a benign climate.

List of Houses

Introduction: Out of the Box

SHIFTING GEOMETRIES

SERENE VOLUMES

DYNAMIC STRUCTURES

FRONTING THE OCEAN

ENGAGING THE LANDSCAPE

CONFINED LOTS

RADICAL VISIONS

Featured Architects

Acknowledgements

Photo Credits

Burnham House

Weissberg House

Wing House

Collins House

Well House

Blades House

Casabel

Friesen House

Schubert-Nagasaki House

Luskin House

M-House

Mt, Washington

Kappe House

Carlson-Reges House

Roehman House

Yorkin House

Culbert House

Reyna House

Sullivan-Cowan House

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