Orlando Residence by JSA.LA
Just as their client composes moments and experiences through music, JSA.LA has created a piece of architecture that evokes emotion and intrigue through form.
Photographs: Sam Frost Photography
Architects
Sonny Ward, Principal; Malek Alqadi, Project Designer/Project Manager; Corey Miller, Project Manager - JSA.LA
Located in California, June Street Architecture (JSA.LA) consists of a team of experienced architects and designers dedicated to creating innovative design and dynamic spaces. Working closely with their clients and using existing conditions to inspire new design elements, JSA.LA are well regarded for their holistic approach. Subsequently, the spaces JSA.LA design are reflective of the client’s brief; elegant, highly detailed and sensitive to the surrounding environment.Hollywood Home
The Story Behind The Design
JSA.LA was provided with the rare opportunity to design a modern bachelor pad for an award-winning Hollywood composer that was to be truly unique. The home was to be of a modern aesthetic that incorporated high-quality 21st century amenities and technology and provide the client with an inner-city West Hollywood secluded escape. “The client’s brief was for a private sanctuary where he can live, work, recharge and entertain,” explained JSA.LA principle Sonny Ward.
As a composer, the client creates moments and experiences through music. It's appropriate that the architecture does the same
Corey Mller
Inspired by the composer’s supernova artistic and futuristic music as well as the potential of the site, JSA.LA immersed themselves in the world of entertainment, specifically the 1960s classic TV series Star Trek. “The idea of a starship creates intrigue and excitement as it enables us to inhabit an uninhabitable space,” explained Sonny. “This gave us the chance to explore a starship dynamic and for the structure to function properly, it needs to be built with precision.”
To achieve structural accuracy, JSA.LA created a grid as the foundation for which architectural volumes could extend from. Their design approach was greatly driven by a desire to create moments of intrigue and connections between the spaces, views and experiences.
With views that required editing to provide the client with optimal privacy, the architectural form needed to be a direct response to the site. The block’s position and perspective inspired a c-shaped form which offered both concealment and fluidity.
A Bolzano sandstone “spine” wall extends its way through from the exterior into the interior spaces. As a functional element, the spine stores the home’s mechanical equipment and acts as the central axis for which rooms can extend from. The axial connections offered circulation and architecturally-designed viewpoints, explained project designer and manager Malek Alqadi. “The home becomes its own sanctuary and allows the architecture to provide the experience as you circulate throughout the interior.”
Fittings & Fixtures
Study Table
Snaregade Rectangular Table
Light
Moooi Random Light
Bench
DAO Handcrafted Wooden Bench
Lighting
Labware Pendant Lamps
To reinforce privacy, the concept was to design a multi-layered entry experience
Malek Alqadi
As music and film was the driving inspiration, the entry to the home was integral to the success of the project. The architects likened the entry to a movie trailer that provides you with a preview of what you’re about to experience, but not giving you immediate access. The entry’s stone threshold and the linear program builds this sense of intrigue and expectation as you journey through the interior.
Malek explained: “To reinforce privacy, the concept was to design a multi-layered entry experience”. The entry comprised of two cantilevered bridges in a ‘T’ formation that extends over a Koi pond marking the home’s entrance. To further add impact, JSA.LA in collaboration with Water Studio, designed an impressive 5.5m water feature that’s wrapped in the stone.
While the architects had realised an architectural form that would encourage seamless flow throughout the spaces and privacy, engineering a studio that ensured the best acoustics was a challenging, yet exciting, demand of the brief. Project manager Corey Miller explained they needed to create a studio that rigorously blocked out noise and enhanced the client’s creative needs to compose, all the while making the space and the surrounding space beautiful.
Working in closely with SHA Acoustics, JSA.LA created an entire workroom that would function as an office, studio and screening space. Consisting of varying ceiling heights and custom-built sound buffers the room is well-equipped for endless hours of composing and editing.
Signature Element
Crucial to the home’s layout and aesthetics was the central “spine” that ran throughout the home. Clad in Bolzano stand stone, it was the timeless and clean aesthetic of the material that caught JSA.LA’s attention. Sonny revealed: “It’s a subtle material that provides the right amount of impact for various volumes throughout the home.”