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The minimalist, detailed philosophy of architect Regan Bice emerges
in a sleek, functional hillside home
What’s the point of living up in the hills if you can’t
enjoy your view? That was the dilemma for Berkeley-based Regan
Bice Architects when an Oakland hills homeowner wanted a fireplace
in the living room, but the room was a huge glass pavilion looking
out over the surrounding hills.
Regan Bice’s solution? Skip the typical, massive brick
construction and instead create a translucent, perforated stainless
steel chimney that not only is an artistic addition to the room,
but doesn’t impede the view—and even allows natural
light to filter through.
“Usually, fireplaces are massive objects that block views,” says
Regan Bice architect Andrew Fischer. “But here we had a glass
pavilion with a beautiful view. You needed to be able to enjoy
the fireplace and the view without compromising either one.”
The chimney, made by Oakland metal craftsman Dennis Luedeman,
is just one of the understated yet clever design approaches
in this modern home. “As
a rule, we try not to do anything arbitrary,” explains
architect and company
principal Regan Bice. “We take the straightforward
approach of enhancing
the existing components rather than adding aesthetic detail.” Or,
as with the chimney, they incorporate the aesthetic with the
functional.
At the Oakland residence, owned by a national
car rental company executive, these careful design choices were
made throughout the building process, starting with the home’s
siting on a constrained hillside lot. The three-story, 2,800-square-foot
home is set slightly diagonally on the steep slope in order
to maximize the views, natural light, and privacy. The asymmetrical
siting also creates triangles of unexpected garden space
in both the front and rear of the house, a rare amenity for hillside
dwellers.
The entryway is down a flight of stairs from the driveway
and garage and
over a large Pau Lope wood deck to broad French doors.
The deck continues
along the side of the home to the kitchen, which opens
onto the deck through a 10-foot-wide Nana folding door
system. Sitting downslope from the street, this expansive
indoor/outdoor area is shielded from the street by the
garage.
Throughout the home’s interior, Bice
used Australian jarrah hardwood,
steel, aluminum, glass, and silky smooth white plaster. “By
using fewer materials, the spaces flow better,” says Bice,
whose aesthetic was influenced by the Spanish countryside’s “homogeneous
white villages” of stone, tile, and wood he encountered
while working in Spain in the 1970s. Building materials were
limited, and Bice learned to find inspiration in these simple
homes. “Using different materials for every object stops
the eye. We don’t want architecture to get in the way of
the experience of the space.”
The jarrah floors and cabinetry in the home give an
earthy richness and sense of grounding to the ethereal
glass-and-light pavilion living room. As a counterpoint,
the glinting steel of that room’s
chimney is reflected in the railings of the entryway and deck,
the kitchen hood, and the anodized aluminum windows. The sleek
plaster of the walls and ceiling carries seamlessly beyond the
windows onto the soffit outside. “The use of natural materials
warms the modernist idiom that we’re working in,” says
Bice.
Elements such as honed black granite kitchen countertops
and the Carrara marble and etched mosaic tiles in the master
bath enhance the welcoming feel. “We want the richness of the
materials to provide the life of the space,” Bice adds.
Bice describes his modernist approach as “reductive” and,
when queried about the origin and nature of this terminology
with regard to architecture, chuckles self-effacingly. “It’s
a word that I use all the time,” he says, “but it
may not be [an architectural term]. I think I made it up. What
it’s implying is simplifying.”
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